Judo: Silver debut for Fallon

Craig fallon, the 21-year-old bantamweight, showed he is world class by taking a silver medal at his first European championships after a succession of hard-fought matches in Düsseldorf yesterday.

Only the vastly experienced Georgian, Nestor Khergiani, currently top in the European rankings and a former European champion himself, could stop Fallon, catching him with two quick leg grabs.

It was Fallon's first loss since taking gold in the Commonwealth Games last summer. He gave a fine display of attacking judo here yesterday disposing of Austria's Ludwig Paischer with a clean inner thigh throw for waza-ari (seven points). Spain's Kenji Uematsu retired injured and Fallon controlled Oscar Morokhovets from Ukraine to win on a penalty before showing his steel in the semi-final against Arman Nazaryan of Armenia. Behind on a five-point score for much of the match, Fallon pulled out a winning sacrifice throw in the last second to take him into the final.

Featherweight Georgina Singleton, 25, could not quite match last year's winning performance taking bronze against Belgium's Kristin Taelman.