Dalgety Bay judo star Kirsty Marsh competes for Great Britain at the European Cadet Judo Championships

It is the first time that a member of Dunfermline’s Destination Judo Club has been selected for the GB cadet international team, although Marsh – along with clubmates Fiona Todman, Emma Forrest and Ryan Turnbull – has represented Judo Scotland many times abroad over the past three years.

Marsh took to the mats this morning in the girls’ under-52 kilo class and the reigning triple Scottish champion will be hoping to replicate the form which resulted in her selection, having led the British Judo Ippon League after the first round of ranking events earlier in the year and then impressed at GB training camps before the team was finally confirmed.

The Inverkeithing High School pupil, who is the middle year of the cadet age band, has already competed for Judo Scotland in Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic and Spain in 2016 but has needed to draw on all of her experience as a four-times British medallist to be competitive at a European level.

Over the past eight months, she has recorded competitive wins over the champions of Spain, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands, but has been beaten by their counterparts from Germany, Poland and Italy in the very tough light-middleweight category.

With the top seeds from Israel, Azerbaijan, Russia and the Czech Republic also expected to compete in Finland, the West Fifer will need to be at her very best to avoid an early exit in the Helsinki tournament and to show the big match temperament which enabled her to anchor the Scottish team to second place in the Sportif International Teams Tournament earlier in the year.

Having attended a gruelling pre-Europeans training camp in Potsdam, Germany last week, the 16-year-old has now completed her preparations for the biggest challenge yet in her fledgling career, just over 10 years after having taken up the sport as a result of a taster judo class in Primary 1 as part of the Fife Council Active Schools programme.