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FALLON CONFIRMS CLASS

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Tim Crooks 24 September 2007

Great Britain’s Craig Fallon showed his class and determination claiming gold in front of a rapturous home crowd in Birmingham this Saturday during this first day of the Fighting Films 2007 Great Britain World Cup, another major international sporting event on home soil supported by UK Sport’s World Class Events Programme.

Competing in the men’s under 60kg category, Fallon defeated Josh O’Neil of the USA, Javier Fernandez of Spain, Eyyubov Dzheykhun of Russia, and Jeroen Mooren of the Netherlands to take his place in the final. There he met Maksym Korotun of the Ukraine, who he pinned down after two minutes for ippon (holding an opponent down for 25 seconds, or by a stranglehold or arm lock until submission, or throwing an opponent flat on their back) to win gold.

Reflecting on his performance, Fallon was pleased with his efforts which also resulted in him being presented with the Player of the Tournament Award:

“I haven’t fought in this weight category for a year and a half so it is really good to be back. It was also really important to get the Olympic qualifying points as at the moment I am nowhere. I didn’t want to end the year with nothing on the board so this will really help," he said.

This World Cup, supported by UK Sport, was an Olympic qualification event for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and as hosts Britain had the option to enter up to four athletes in each of the seven weight categories. Overall, 37 countries were in action across all divisions, exceeding the expectations of tournament organisers, the British Judo Association.

Day two of the World Cup proved to be a difficult one for the Great Britain team with two top ten finishes for both James Austin and Winston Gordon. 

Crowd favorite Gordon won his opening two fights of the day, the first by an arm lock for ippon against Milan Randl of Slovakia and the second with two kokas (a throw or hold for 10 to 14 seconds) against Rubert Marinez of Cuba.

He next faced Sergei Aschwanden of Switzerland the World silver medallist and former European Champion, who beat Gordon in an extremely close final which finished with a yuko (5 points) on the board for Aschwanden and a koka (3 points) for Gordon. Gordon then entered the repechage competition but failed to get passed Zafar Makhmador of Russia, after being thrown for ippon leaving him in ninth position.

Britain’s second ninth placing came from local fighter James Austin in the under 90kg division who lost in his opening fight against Hugo Silva of Portugal but won his second again Nicolas Brisson of France with a hold down for ippon. Despite putting in a good performance against Kalolis Bauza of Lithuania, which finished regulatory time with no scores on the board, he was caught out on golden score taking him out of the competition.

The Fighting Films 2007 Great Britain World Cup is one of 20 major international sporting events to be supported by UK Sport’s National Lottery backed Word Class Events Programme in 2007, and will benefit from a grant of up to £94,000. The award is part of a total of over £3 million of Lottery money it distributes each year to support the bidding and staging costs of major events, as well as providing specialist support to organisers.

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