European Cup, Hamburg 2010

I had

two weeks to really prepare for this competition. In that time I also had to get my weight down from 56kg to 52kg. Judo is a same day weigh-in and I knew I would probably have to sweat (dehydrate) to make it but the plan was to decrease my weight as much as possible before this. I trained up in Kendal for a week with the development squat and Barry took good care of me food wise.

We arrived on Friday and had all day to relax. I wasn't fighting till the Sunday. I went to watch on the Saturday but also had to spend some time in the gym.

On the Sunday I weighed in and because of the way it worked out I wasn't going to be on for a couple of hours so plenty of time to rehydrate and get warmed up. I didn't feel particularly nervous, just happy to be there. The first fight out of the way and done, I went on to lose the second. But then came back through the repercharge. Altogether I know I didn't perform all that well but taking everything into account I was happy with the result.

"In under 52kg action was the returning Sophie Cox who had bye in first round. The 28-year-old, who had taken a break from competing since 2005, beat Germany’s Jessica Borchardt in the second round before slipping to Germany’s Susi Zimmermannin. In the repechage Cox beat Miranda Wolfslag of the Netherlands and Germany’s Jenny Nisser a to scoop an impressive bronze medal in her return to the international fold." (From the BJA website).