Judo - European Cup silver for Kendal fighter Horley (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Judo - European Cup silver for Kendal fighter Horley

1:49pm Thursday 30th June 2011 in Sport

KENDAL Judo Club fighter Michael Horley beat national champions from Holland, Slovenia, Czechoslovakia and Russia to win a silver medal at the European Cup in Slovenia.

Horley was the only Briton to make the podium at the championships and he started spectacularly against Glenn Bolleboom, from the Netherlands, who lasted less than 30 seconds before he was felled with major outer reaping throw (o soto gari).

He followed up this success with a shoulder throw against two-times Slovenian national champion Igor Spasojevic.

The Kendal ace’s next contest was against Michal Horak, whom Horley gave no chance of attacking, leaving the frustrated Czech to pick up penalty after penalty.

This put Horley into the semi-finals against the European Under-23 championship runner-up, Azamat Sitimov of Russia.

A tight contest went to "golden score" time, during which the Kendal player threw his opponent with, as he described it, "a shoulder throw which was like a car crash."

In the final Horley at last suffered defeat to Alexander Jureca, from Czechoslovakia. The official report of the final said Horley was the better in the match, but that Jureca managed a minor score after five minutes which ultimately secured him the win.

British Development Coach Darren Warner, said "It was an excellent performance from Michael. He showed great tenacity all day especially in the semi-final against the Russian Simitov."

British Judo Association Head Coach, Patrick Roux added his compliment to the only British medallist at the Championships, saying: "It is very positive to have a young judoka coming through in the under-90 kilo category.”

In the under-81 kilo category, Kendal Club member David Groom was looking as though he would emulate Michael's performance with full point wins against Slovenian Rudl and Ukranian Gonchuk but against Dragomir of Roumania he received a head injury and had to withdraw from the tournament.