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ST HELENS judoka Lucy Renshall had a day to remember as she won gold at the 2015 Junior European Judo Championships in Oberwart, Austria on Saturday.

The -63kg athlete, who trains in Walsall at the British Judo Centre of Excellence, was coming into the Championships with six medals to her name at Junior European Cup level this year including gold medals in her last two competitions.

After receiving a bye into the second round, Eccleston's Renshall produced two consecutive ippon finishes against Romania’s Mustea Margarita and Buga Kovac (Croatia) to book a spot in the final four where she faced teammate Lubjana ‘Lulu’ Piovesana.

Unsurprisingly it proved to be a tight contest and Renshall was down by shido until the very last second when she scored with yuko to go through to the final.

Greek judoka Elisavet Teltsidou was her opponent in the final and after both were tied on a shido each the contest went into golden score where Renshall produced some final judo to win by ippon and be crowned European champion.

Speaking afterwards Renshall said:“I am really happy; I don’t know what to say.

"It is amazing. I wanted to come here and medal and of course at the back of my mind I wanted to win it and here I am now with the gold medal.

“Mentally the semi-final was my hardest contest against my friend and my team-mate Lulu, however physically and technically the final was the toughest of all.”

She was joined on the podium by fellow St Helens judoka Bekky Livesey who won bronze in the -57kg category on Friday.

Livesey had won a silver in her last competition in Romania and was aiming for a medal but came undone against Romania’s Stefania Adelina Dobre in the semi-finals.

However the British fighter, who trains with Renshall at the Centre of Excellence, came back to produce a fine performance in the bronze medal contest against Ukrainian Mariia Skora to come home with the medal.

“I had no idea who she was, she felt strong but from the first exchange I felt that I can beat her,” explained Livesey after her winning contest.

“The target was to place today, so going home with a medal is really amazing. I am really happy.”