European Sombo Success for Great Britain!
Emily Gittins from Luton’s Marsh Farm Wrestling Club and Sombo UK won a silver medal against some strong Eastern European opposition which included teams from 10 ex Soviet states in the European Sombo Wrestling Championships in Cuneo, Italy in May.
19 year old Emily, a Sports Science student at the University of Bath, fought positively during the event to take 2nd place in the junior Under 72 kilo category. Emily squeezed past Urbanaite of Lithuania in the semi final only to be beaten by the outstanding winner Maria Semenyuk of Ukraine. Emily added a further 5th place the following day in the senior event where once again Semenyuk stopped her progress in the quarter final on her way to her second gold of the tournament. Emily fought bravely against the Russian Maksimenkova for the bronze but her opponent’s greater experience told in the end and she went down to a points defeat.
Emily now has a European medal to add to her World bronze from Krasnoyarsk last year and certainly looks to be one of Britain’s brightest prospects for international Sombo success in the coming years.
Britain’s other two representatives, veterans Joyce Malley (5th Senior Ladies Under 60 kilos) and Paul Sawyer (9th Senior Men Under 68 kilos) both gave a good account of themselves in hotly contested categories but were unable to make the rostrum this time although they certainly did enough to show they were still forces to be reckoned with at international level.