Turkey finish Europeans with three golds

Turkey won three golds and a silver on the final day of the European Championships here on Sunday to serve notice of their strength ahead of the 2012 Olympics in London.

In the women's -53kg final Turkey's Hatice Yangin just edged Croatia's Ana Zaninovic 8-7 while her compatriot Nur Tatar enjoyed a more comfortable 11-5 success over Haby Niare of France to win gold in the -67kg category.

Meanwhile, in the men's events Servet Tazegul had a walkover against Croatia's Filip Grgic in the -68kg gold medal match while Ridvan Baygut just missed out on another Tuirkish gold on Sunday after a 6-5 defeat by Russia's Aliaskhab Sirazhov in the climax of the -74kg class.

Although Great Britain saw Martin Stamper (-68kg) and Caroline Fisher (-53kg) both win bronze medals on Sunday there was disappointment for Bianca Walkden who lost in the quarter-finals of the -67kg category as she tried to give the British selectors, due to pick their Olympic squad at the end of the month, something to think about.

Walkden dropped down a weight category to stand in for injured world champion Sarah Stevenson, who is battling to be fit in time for the Olympics following a severe knee injury, and se enjoyed a golden-score victory over Poland's Kataryzyna Wieczorek. But Walkden then lost to Croatia's Petra Matijasevic, whom she thought should have been disqualified.

Walkden, holding back tears, said: “I tried to get her disqualified at the end for holding, but I did not get it and now it is over.

“It was everything to me, the last major championships before the Olympics and I know I should be out there still.” Walkden, who recovered from her own cruciate ligament injury last year, added: “I have just got to sit back and pray now, to see if the selectors can take anything from my performance because I gave everything I had.

“I just wish I had some luck sometimes, because I had the worst luck last year, (I just hope) that someday it will turn around for me.” Saturday saw Britain's Aaron Cook complete a successful defence of his -80kg title while team-mate Michael Harvey won gold in the non-Olympic weight class of -63kg.

But teenager Jade Jones was disappointed to only take bronze after a surprise 16-8 semi-final defeat by Hungary's Edina Kotsis in the -57kg category.

Friday saw Britain's Lutalo Muhammad, making his European Championship debut, win the -87kg division after the 20-year-old Londoner beat world number nine Augustin Bata of France 13-4 in the final.

AFP