Charlotte Jenman (17) of Tonbridge Judo club current GB Cadet number 1, travelled to Zagreb, Croatia for its edition of the 2022 European Cadet Cup tour. Jenman who competes at -52kg has been teetering on the edge of scooping her first podium finish on the international circuit for the last year, her recent form has seen her take a 5th place at the Spanish Cadet European Cup.
Seeded 6th in the tournament Jenman had a first round bye, where she met French athlete Alicia Marques in her opening contest. Marques opened up the first exchange with a high right hand grip, which Jenman overrode with a maki komi attack to take her French opponent over for ippon in just 6 seconds.
Her third round match would be against Siennicka (POL) where a score in the dying seconds of the contests secured the Polish athlete the win, leaving Jenman to battle it out of the repechage in 54 athlete strong field.
In the repechage Jenman overcame, Cinagrossi (SUI), Sydykova (KGZ), and Klaus-Sternwiesser (AUT) to register her a place in the bronze medal contest against Catana (ROU).
The -52kg final block didn’t begin until 21:15 in the evening, after a lengthy 11.5 hr preliminary period. Jenman started off her bronze medal contest in fine fashion scoring an early waza-ari, and then being double up with another waza-ari ending the contest in the final half of the contest.
by Ben Urban
