Sam Sampson led the way for Sobell Judo Club at the Miyazaki Cup in Greece, returning with two medals in his luggage.

Eight of the club’s members travelled to the city of Thessaloniki for the event, where they took on some of Europe’s best.

Sam Sampson

Sampson prevailed in the open-weight category despite facing some judokas that were double his size, adding gold to the silver he took at under-83kg.

Silver medals were also collected by Fionn Rowan at under-71kg, Alex Charalambrous at under-66kg and Sasha McClean at under-91kg.

Bronze medals, meanwhile, went the way of Lucian Buleandra at under-79kg, Miker Barton at under-91kg and Hannah Chesham at under-78kg.

Alexis Bardini and para-athlete Karl Summerbell also took part in the event, competing at under-75kg and under-71kg respectively.

All Sobell athletes who travelled to Greece are sure to have taken a lot from the experience and will hope to put that to good use in the coming weeks.

Sampson Sampson founder and President of the JFA UK and Technical director of the World Judo Federation with Avkerinos Matserelis 5th Dan Judo and President of Greece JFA