HUSBAND and wife duo Mark and Kylie Adams returned from the European Judo Masters Championships in Spain with a trio of medals earlier this month.

Mark and Kylie, who are members and coach at the Tavistock based Drake Judo Club, represented Great Britain and were in action against the top masters players in Europe.

Mark, a fourth dan black belt, who, at 6 feet 3 inches and 18 stone, competes in the heavyweight section, had numerous tough contests and a close semi-final which saw him just miss out on an opportunity to fight for the title. He then had to regroup and finish the day in style with a win in the bronze medal final, meaning he can put a claim on being one of the top heavyweights in Europe.

Wife Kylie, a third dan black belt, fights in the under 70kg middleweight section and appeared to be on an excellent run after a convincing win, which put her into the semi-finals. She lost out in a close match and then had to recompose herself to contest the bronze medal final which she duly won, making her a two time European medallist following her success in 2018.

Kylie then participated in a team contest, where again, Great Britain found themselves in a playoff for the three medals with Germany and France. After victory against France they went down fighting against Germany and through count back, ended in bronze medal position and Kylie had her second medal of the day. They will now set their sights on the upcoming Commonwealth Championships and British Championships later this year, followed by the World Championships, where Mark is a defending bronze medallist. 

Chairman of Drake Judo Club, Ross Taylor, said: ‘What a fantastic achievement this is for both Mark and Kylie. The dedication to training and perfecting judo has seen them both to success in this prestigious tournament. We as a club are immensely proud of both of them and we look forward to them continuing their success this year and beyond. Not only do they both train extremely hard but also put a tremendous amount of time and effort into coaching our members both junior and senior, which they do purely as volunteers.’