Olympics and Olympic Sports - Clark and Renicks win gold

Eurosport - Mon, 21 Sep 08:18:00 2009

Sarah Clark and Kimberley Renicks captured gold on day one of the Birmingham World Cup to get Great Britain's campaign off to a flying start.

Sarah Clark of Britain (blue) reacts after being defeated by Claudia Heill of Austria during their women's -63kg preliminary judo match at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games 
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Clark (pictured) stepped down a weight from -63kg to -57kg after the Beijing Olympics, before claiming silver at the European Championships in April.

The 31-year-old crashed out of August's World Championships in Rotterdam - but went some way to making amends by defeating Austria's Hilde Dexler by ippon in her final in the Midlands.

"It felt good today," said Clark. "I am pleased that I gave people something to shout about.

"My build up has been good all year, it is just a shame that the World Championships weren't as good.

"Looking ahead I need to make sure that I am making progress month by month.

"I know I have been doing that, I just didn't do myself justice at the World Championships."

Renicks took gold with victory over Ireland's Lia Kearney in a final which went the distance.

"I am actually really happy with that result - it was the first time that I have beaten her," said Renicks.

"Last year I finished fifth at this event so it is better to come back here and medal. The home crowd has been really important - that support kept me going."

Meanwhile, James Millar and Alex Farbon claimed bronze in the -60kg and -73kg categories respectively.

Millar overhauled Russia's Murad Abdulaev, while Farbon defeated Norway's Martin Thiblin.

"I had a lot of tough matches today that required a lot of hard work but it all paid off and I got my bronze medal," said Farbon.

"It is a strong category for us and we have a lot of decent players at that weight so I was lucky enough to have got the bronze today."

More than the Games / Eurosport

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  1. what is this story doing on the birmingham city­ site,its supposed to be about the football club

    From DAVE, on Sun 20 Sep 5:21PM
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