Student sport: Double Britishmedal success

BRITISH MEDALS at the World Student Games here have been a little like the number 68 bus: you wait around for ages and then two come along together.

Karen Roberts and Kate Howey yesterday battled their way through to silver and bronze in the judo hall at Princeps d'Espanya, their achievements marking remarkable comebacks from injury.

Competing in the under-63kg category, Roberts met the daunting Danielle Vriezema of the Netherlands in the final. It was all over quickly, the Dutchwoman winning by a holding ippon, pinning Roberts to the mat for more than 10sec, within a minute of the start.

Roberts, from Brunel University in west London, has only been back in the sport for six months. The winner of the world junior title in 1992, she seriously injured ligaments in her knee in that competition, and only recently had an operation to repair the damage.

Howey, the former world champion, now based with one of the University of Bath's elite training squads, came into the Games with just a few months' preparation after injury. She won her bronze in the under-70kg category the hard way, losing in a preliminary round and having to work her way through the repechage system.

It is nearly a week since any Britons won a medal at these Games, the solitary earlier bronze coming from the women's 4x200m freestyle swimming relay team last Sunday.