Peter Vincent, GLL Sport Foundation supported athlete representing Great Britain and Hertfordshire University won a spectacular Bronze medal at the 2017 European University Championships in Coimbra, Portugal.
Competing in the Over 100Kg division Peter won his pool with ippon wins over France’s Vincent Roudrie and Turkey’s Bedrettin Camlibel to set up a semi-final with Portugal’s World Ranked heavyweight Diogo Silva.
Peter set the pace in the opening exchanges scoring Wazari but the experience and patience of Silva paid off as he scored ippon towards the end of the fight to take him into the final.
‘I was pleased to medal but disappointed not to make the final this time. This year has been difficult due to a couple of health problems that took a few months to sort out but I am back on track’. ‘ The major target events this year were the World Sports Games in Latvia and the European Universities in Portugal and I have medalled in both these top events so I hope to have a much better second half of 2017’.
‘I would like to thank Hertfordshire University and the BJA Southern Area for funding my trip to Portugal. Great Britain took 5 medals at the Championships in the various weights’.
Camps in Slovenia and Spain over the summer will help prepare Peter for the upcoming British and Belgian ranking competitions and the European Cups where he hopes to improve his current European ranking.
‘I will be taking a different approach to competitions next year in order to concentrate on the Senior European Tour. This will mean tougher fights but more experience gained against the World Ranked players so I can hopefully bring home Gold medals for Great Britain from events like the European Universities. Visiting as many countries to train and compete is certainly the way forward’.
Good luck to Peter in his upcoming competitions!
