THERE may have been a few tears along the way but Jemima Duxberry is back dreaming of the Olympics after a sparkling return from injury.
Not long after competing at the European Junior Championships in Bucharest in September 2014, the Devizes judoka suffered a major injury blow as she snapped both the anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in her left knee in a freak collision in training at the University of Bath.
Months of painstaking rehabilitation followed for the 21-year-old, who trains under coach Juergen Klinger, but on January 31, Duxberry competed for the first time in 15 months at the Belgian Ladies Open in Arlon and came away with a bronze medal, beating fellow Brit Rachel Tytler to take third-place in the senior U78kg category.
Delighted Duxberry, who is now committed to working towards making the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, says that her Belgium return was a long time in the making.
“The injury happened after the European Juniors and before I’d got selected for the World Juniors (in Miami). It was in randori (practice) and someone just collapsed onto my knee and I snapped my ACL and MCL,” said the Devizes player, who despite her spell on the sidelines, has remained on the Sport England Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme.
“I had surgery on February 1 (in 2015) and rehab took a long time. I would go to events like the British trials and say that I was going to come back at the next event but it wouldn’t happen and it would end up with me in tears – it was hard to get over mentally.
“I thought that going to Belgium would make it easier and I felt ready but when I was on the edge of the mat, I felt sick.
“I just wanted to go there and win one match and when I did that, all of that competitiveness came flooding back – it was great to have that back again.
“At the end, my coach said that I should have won. I think a lot of other people were anxious, especially my dad (Dave), and I was in tears when I rang him, so I think that worried him.”
Duxberry, who is set to compete at the African Open in Casablanca, Morrocco, on March 12-13, added: “I’m looking to try and get to Tokyo in 2020. Even though I’m too old, TASS have sponsored me for another year but I need to try and get a lot of funding back.”
Meanwhile, Devizes Budo Club’s Evan Molloy clinched a gold medal for the British Visually Impaired team at the German Open in Heidelberg last weekend.
The 16 year old, who trains at the University of Bath, came away with junior (-73kg) gold and also finished in fifth place finish in the seniors event.
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