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ST Helens judoka Lucy Renshall has marked her Senior European Championship debut in Tel Aviv with a bronze medal, writes Mike Critchley.

The 22-year-old from Eccleston had previously won gold at the Junior (U21) and U23 European Championships and silver at the Cadet (U18) European Championships.

Now enjoying a week off in a gruelling all year long season, Renshall spoke of her delight at securing the medal.

She said: “I didn’t go there expecting a medal, I just wanted to go out there and fight good and if a medal came I’d be even happier.

“And that is what happened.

“I did not feel any pressure going in and that certainly helped.

“It was a really exciting atmosphere in front of a packed stadium and great to fight there.”

Going in as eighth seed she had a bye into the second round where she took on Russia’s Daria Davydova.

In long and tactical contest that went to golden score it was Renshall who took the win as she threw Davydova for ippon.

This put Renshall into the quarter-finals where she took on current WRL 1 and World Champion Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA).

The British fighter more than held her own against her illustrious opponent. Agbegnenou took a waza-ari lead with just over a minute to go but Renshall still had chances to win it late on.

Her best opportunity came when she appeared to have osaekomi (hold down) secured but the French judoka showed her strength to wrestle her way out of it.

In the end though that waza-ari proved to be the difference and Renshall dropped into the repechage final where she took on Tina Zeltner (AUT).

“I was really sad after I fought her (Agbegnenou) because I knew I had given her a good fight, but this time I really, really wanted to beat her but it didn’t happen.

“I was disappointed after that fight but after watching the video later on that evening I took some positives from it.

“It gave me plenty to work on for the next competition and hopefully I will beat her,” Renshall said.

The Austrian judoka made things difficult early on but Renshall started to take control and she threw Zeltner for waza-ari with just over 90 seconds left.

The British fighter showed good contest management to hold off her opponent and secure a place in the bronze medal match.

However, Alice Schlesinger received hansoku-make for throwing with an armlock in her semi-final, which meant that Renshall finished the day with bronze.

Interview with Lucy in next week’s Star.