Judo: Dunkley stamps his entry with show of maturity
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Your support makes all the difference.After four full days of the World Championships here in Paris, the British team did not manage to improve on the gold medal won by Kate Howey, but there cannot be disappointment. Yesterday the two seventh places from the bantamweights were hard-fought - from the oldest and the youngest member of the team.
Particularly impressive was the debut at this level of competition of the 21-year-old Sam Dunkley. He may have come from Willesden Judo Club, but there is no doubt that he was the best man for the job and a real international prospect.
He has proved himself by winning silvers at the British and German Opens. Yesterday he was thrown in his first fight by Fulvio Miyata, of Brazil, but went on to three fine wins in the repechage, including a mature five- point score win over Girolamo Giovinazzi, Italy's Olympic silver medallist. On this showing Dunkley could be the leading bantamweight of the next few years.
Joyce Heron, the 32-year-old Scottish mother of two, may be at the end of her career, which has seen European and world bronzes, but she can still pull off wins at this level. She lost two fights, but produced two decisive wins, strangling the Pole Barbara Krzyoda and throwing So Young Oh, of Korea, with a spectacular hip throw.
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