Darren_Harris_and_Ben_QuilterJanuary 18 - British Judo's Paralympic manager Dave Sanders has criticised the standard of performance and attendance at the German Open – despite his visually-impaired team returning with a clutch of five medals.


After watching Ben Quilter and Darren Harris (pictured) take gold in Heidelberg, Sanders said: "This year's German VI Open was not well attended and not of a particularly high standard, which is a shame when you are trying to put in strong performances ahead of major tournaments and after a good block of training.

"That said, our players did what they had to do and each of them gained more valuable experience to take back with them in their preparation for the major events later in the year and of course London 2012.

"The team is staying out in Germany for the training camp and will be put through their paces by Jean-Paul Bell."

It was the third time in their careers that Quilter and Harris have won gold at the Open.

Quilter made his way to the top of the rostrum in the -60kg category once again, by winning each of his fights in his pool of five.

Harris's two wins earned him the gold medal in the pools (round-robin) competition format.

Joe Ingram took a silver medal in the -100kg competition for the second year in a row.

The Briton faced the same challengers as last year in Oliver Upmann of Germany and 2010 World bronze medallist Myles Porter of the United States.

Winning her first German Open medal, Lesley Reid picked up silver in the 70kg weight category, which was an amalgamation of -70kg and +70kg fighters.

Reid overcame Erica Freidmann of Sweden and Barbara Schmidt of Germany, but lost to current World Champion Olga Zabrodskaya of Russia after a lengthy fight.

Daniel Powell was also selected to compete in the German Open for the first time and came away with bronze in the -81kg.

Powell's first fight went to golden score and was eventually awarded to Langhammer via the flags and a unanimous referee's decision.

The second fight was against World Champion Matthias Krieger and resulted in a win for the German.


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January 2011: Sanders calls for consistency from British Judo's visually-impaired team in Heidelberg