Natalie Powell came agonisingly close to winning what would have been Team GB's first and only judo medal at the European Games on Saturday as she fought Anamari Klementina Velensek of Slovenia for bronze in the -78kg category.
The Commonwealth Games champion looked in control for much of the contest before Velensek pounced late on to seal the victory.
Sports Mole spoke with the 24-year-old afterwards to get her take on the action and the experience of competing in the European Games as a whole.
Hi Laura, commiserations for just missing out on a medal. What's your assessment of how that bronze-medal match went?
"I think I was doing the right thing for the whole fight, then it's just those last few seconds... the last thing I thought she was going to do was go to ground. Usually those things take a little time. It didn't even cross my mind that she would try to get me on the ground. I was expecting her to stand up and come at me hard, but it didn't happen.
"I've fought her a lot of times before and not been close to her, so for me this was a massive improvement. But to be that close and not take it was pretty disappointing."
Was the match quite typical of how judo can go? It seems as if the line between winning and losing can be so fine in this sport...
"Yeah, it can be over in a split second. If we fought that fight another five times there's no way I would make that mistake again. It happens."
Can you take some pride from coming so close to getting a medal when the rest of Team GB haven't really threatened?
"I'm really pleased because this is only my third result at the Europeans. I've done two before and haven't got the results, so this is by far the best result that I've had at the Europeans. I was just so close to a medal! Fifth is always the worst place to finish in Judo."
You had to wait quite a while before your bronze-medal match. Was that beneficial or not?
"It can be sometimes, especially if you've had a rough start to the day and just scraped through - a break is normally really good. You've got a bit of time to change your head and have a little sleep. But if you've been fighting well then it's not so good. For me it didn't make much difference today."
How healthy is British judo at the moment? This has been a fairly tough competition for Team GB...
"I definitely think [it is in a healthy state]. We've got so many great fighters coming through. If you ran this competition again I bet you we'd have a handful of medals. It's just how judo goes - it's not like any other sport!"
Finally, what's been your overall impression of Baku and the European Games?
"It's been awesome. It's been really nice. The weather's been lovely, which helps. It's a bit better than Britain! It's been good competing at a multi-sport event because we don't usually get to do this sort of thing. It's good preparation for [the Rio Olympics] if anything else."
Jack Prescott
