Green and Hawkes win judo bronze medals
Joshua Green and Rachael Hawkes both won bronze medals on the penultimate day of the Games
- Published
Team Northern Ireland’s judokas Joshua Green and Rachael Hawkes have both claimed Commonwealth Games bronze medals on Saturday.
Hawkes finished third after victory by Ippon over Canada's Charlie Thibault in the women's 70kg contest.
Green took bronze in the 73kg lightweight category as he beat Wales' Ben Moore by golden score.
The two further bronze medals take Team NI's total in the Games to 15, nine of which have been bronze.
Bronze medal 'means the world' to Hawkes
Hawkes was emotional after her Ippon victory at the SEC Centre
Hawkes lost her opening bout to Moira de Villiers from New Zealand. It went to extra time with de Villiers eventually winning a titanic struggle with an Ippon.
It sent Hawkes to the repechage where she defeated Holly Devall from Wales by Yuko.
After losing the bronze medal match in Birmingham four years ago Hawkes made amends with victory just one minute and 45 seconds into the bout in the SEC Centre.
Visibly emotional after the fight, she raced over to her sister and coach Sarah Hawkes for an embrace and spoke of her relief at getting on the podium after missing out in 2022.
"It means the world, you can tell when I got the medal, I don't think I've screamed like that in my life," she told BBC Sport NI on her reaction after winning.
"So much hard work has gone into it, not just me, but my coaches, family and community.
"After Birmingham I could have let it get to me and not kept fighting and it's meant even more now. I was able to come back stronger and step on the podium for Northern Ireland."
Green had started his campaign with a golden score win over Mattheo Lawson by Yuko and in the quarter-finals he also defeated Scotland’s Oliver Short by Yuko.
It set up a semi-final against England’s Benjamin Levy, who proved too strong as he beat Green by Waza-Ari.
The 26-year-old bounced back well to edge a tense bout against Welshman Moore to win his first medal at the Games after finishing fifth and also missing out on bronze in 2022.
"It's brilliant, it is a bit of a sore one anytime someone brings up last time [in Birmingham], but to get it done today and get on the podium is really good, I'm buzzing," he told BBC Sport NI.
"There's a lot of hard work day in day out and my dad is here as a coach so he is over the moon."
