Destination Judo Club's Emma Forrest and Fiona Todman medal at British Judo Championships

The West Fifers, part of a Team Scotland squad that competed in judo for the first time at a Commonwealth Youth Games in the summer, medalled at the championships with impressive performances.

At Sheffield’s Institute of Sport, Forrest, 16, struck silver in the cadet girls under-57kg class, while Todman, 17, gained a bronze medal in the junior girls under-52kg category a week later.

The Dunfermline High pupil, who along with Todman competes for Destination Judo Club, received a bye in the first round of her pool because of her second seed status.

Ippon wins over England’s Ioulia Kasapidis and fellow Scot Emma Wilkes, where Forrest forced her opponents to tap out after applying a stranglehold, set up a semi-final with third seed Grace Griffiths of Tsukuru Judo Academy.

Forrest became embroiled in a tough tactical battle and the fight was level after the regulation four minutes and moved into ‘golden score’ time.

Griffiths made the mistake of over-rotating whilst going for a throw and was handed a penalty disqualification that put Forrest into the final against her rival Darcie Hancocks of Hardy Spicer Judo Club.

Despite Hancocks picking up two penalties, the under-pressure English girl produced two excellent throws which were awarded waza-ari and ippon respectively to take the national title.

Forrest was disappointed but is in a strong position to be selected for European Cup tournaments in 2018.

Todman, an S6 pupil at Queen Anne High, was also in top form in South Yorkshire and took some notable scalps on her own journey to the podium.

After opening with a solid waza-ari win over the previous week’s cadet silver medallist Isobel Kitchen, she made certain of qualification from her pool with an ippon victory by pindown against Jasmine Stringer of Metro Judo Club within the first minute of the contest.

A quick defeat to former British champion Molly Harvey in her first fight of the second round pool seemed to have dented Todman’s hopes of a medal, but she responded with two stunning wins.

After throwing Gateshead Judo Club’s Caitlin Barber – who represented Great Britain at the 2017 European Championships in Lithuania – with ippon seoi nage in golden score, she then pinned down Jasmine Hacker-Jones to the mat for a further ippon win that ensured qualification to the medal round.

Although beaten by eventual champion Yasmin Javadian and fellow Scot Hannah Wood in the final pool, Todman earned a bronze medal in a highly competitive category that will see her retain her place in the GB under-21 squad for next year.

Both Todman and Forrest face a month of training camps before next month’s Scottish Junior Open in Glasgow.