Shropshire judoka Gemma Howell has won a second under-23 European championship bronze medal – matching her performance in 2008.

The 20-year-old from Telford, who is on the comeback trail after a long injury lay-off, was one of the top performing Brits at Sarajevo in Bosnia over the weekend.

She defeated Ana Tatalovic of Slovenia and Alessia Regis of Italy in the preliminaries in the under-57kgs weight category.

But her hopes of going for gold were ended by Romania’s Stefania Andreea Chitu, who reached her third consecutive final.

Howell bounced back to defeat 17-year-old Swede Mia Hermansson in the battle for the bronze medal. “I was disappointed to not be in the final but very happy to be on the rostrum, although I really wanted to hear the British National anthem,” said the former Thomas Telford and Adams Grammar School pupil.

“I was pleased with my o-soto-gari in the bronze fight because I don’t usually try it in competition.

“It’s nice finishing the European Circuit with a medal and now I’m looking forward to Korea (where she is competing in the Korean World Cup next month) and hopefully picking up some ranking points.”

Fellow Telford judoka Kelly Edwards competed for GB in the under-52kgs, stepping up from the under-48kgs division in which she usually fights. Edwards’ competition came to an end in the second round.