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).

The build up

From landing back on UK soil.....(July 13th)

Although strange to be back and somewhat of a culture shock there wasn't much time to let the heat and Thai style ease out of my system before it was right back into the thick of things Judo wise. The British women's team had a weekend of team-building in Kendal and my coach Brian happened to be helping to run it so he got me up there to join in. It was great to see the girls again - some old faces and some new; and we had a good weekend waterfall climbing and raft building among other things. So that definitely fueled the fire and I was more than ready to start working on my Judo again. When the chance came to compete in Hamburg, Germany on the 7th/8th of August I didn't hesitate.