SAMURAI judo Club’s Kate Walker finished fifth at the Poland International Open in Gdansk, despite the presence of most of Europe’s top judo fighters.

As the last of the international ‘A’ events before the Junior European Championships in October, the tournament attracted the best countries in Europe and many from outside, including the strong Asian nations such as Japan.

There were more than 20 players in Walker’s under-63 kilos category, which is considered the strongest women’s category, because it is in the middle of the weight range and has more players than the other categories.

The fighter had a bye in the first round, before two fine wins saw her through to the semi-finals.

There, she took on the German number one, who she had beaten on her opponent’s home turf at the Under-20 Open on her way to the bronze in March, but this time the result went the other way as Walker got caught on the ground.

This left her with one last contest for the bronze, and in a tight match, Walker was edged out by a small margin to leave her out of the medal reckoning.

Overall only one member of the British squad took a medal – a bronze – which reflected the strength of the event, so Walker’s result was the joint second best of the national squad, which gave her some consolation.

Samurai chief coach Andrew Haffner said: “The fact that Kate then defeated her German opponent convincingly during the training camp on the days following the competition added to the sense that she is very close to picking up medals at these kind of events.

“It is the sort of position she needs to be in at this stage in order to be ready for London 2012.”