This has been a very busy spring so far for the Malta Judo Federation as some members of the national squad were abroad to participate in different competitions.
Jeremy Saywell was a silver medal winner at the Junior European Cup and Francesco Aufieri also won his category in a tournament in Italy.
Marcon Bezzina was first in action as she represented Malta at the European Championships in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
The event saw the best judokas on the continent taking part as this was the final chance for most of the competitors to qualify for the Olympic Games in summer.
Bezzina, accompanied by Lamberto Raffi, was drawn against Selda Karadag, of Turkey.
The contest started off well as the Maltese judoka managed a yuko with a counter-attack.
She kept that advantage for half of the contest but Karadag then got a top grip pushing Bezzina to a defensive position.
The referee ordered three penalties against Bezzina who was clearly the stronger judoka in this contest but it was Karadag who advanced to the next round.
Bezzina left Russia for Great Britain to attend a pre-Olympic training camp where she was joined by Joanna Camilleri.
In the meantime, national squad members Jeremy Saywell and Isaac Bezzina, accompanied by Alex Bezzina, travelled to Tarvisio, Italy, to compete in their first Junior European Cup, which is one level away from the European Championships.
The top eight in each category are handed ranking points in the EJU list which are then used to seed judokas at the European Championships.
Saywell competed in the -66kgs and started with a win over Loic Demierbe, from Belgium.
He tried his kataguruma again in his next match against Dominik Lang (Austria). That tactic only earned Saywell one point but he did well to defend his advantage and eliminate Lang.
It was then the turn of Italian Giulio Leonardi to succumb to Saywell in a bout which the Maltese youngster concluded with an Ippon.
Germany’s Philipp Marvin also came a cropper against Saywell in the quarters and so did Michal Bartusik, the Pole who had just beaten tournament favourite Matteo Piras, of Italy, in the semi-finals.
The final match was against Ilija Ciganovic, from Serbia.
Saywell started off with a wazari (10 points). However, that was not enough for him to step on the highest place on the podium as Ciganovic scored a wazari himself and a yuko to clinch the title.
Saywell had to settle for silver. He is ranked 19th on the list out of 59.
In Tarvisio, Bezzina was beaten by Matej Hajas, of Slovakia.
Meanwhile, Francesco Aufieri represented the Maltese federation at the Trofeo Citta di Alcamo tournament.
He won his first bout when he threw Marco La Barbera for a wazari and also won his second fight thanks to a strangle against Natale Gentile to secure the top award in his category.
With a reduced entry in the -90kgs class, Aufieri volunteered to fight in that category as well.
He beat Umberto Messina with an Ippon in the decisive bout of the competition.