Sarah Clark (judoka)

Sarah Clark (born 3 January 1978) is a British judoka, who has competed at three Olympic Games.^[2]

Sarah Clark

Clark in 2014
Personal information
Nationality	British (Scottish)
Born	(1978-01-03) 3 January 1978 (age 47) Durham, England
Occupation	Judoka
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Judo
Weight class	‍–‍57 kg, ‍–‍63 kg
Rank	6th dan black belt[1]
Achievements and titles
Olympic Games	13th (2004)
World Champ.	R32 (2005, 2007, 2009, R32( 2010, 2011)
European Champ.	(2006)
Commonwealth Games	(2014)
Medal record Women's judo Representing  Great Britain European Championships 2006 Tampere ‍–‍63 kg 2009 Tbilisi ‍–‍57 kg 2004 Bucharest ‍–‍63 kg Representing  Scotland Commonwealth Games 2014 Glasgow ‍–‍63 kg
Profile at external databases
IJF	106
JudoInside.com	8879
Updated on 16 November 2022

Judo career

Clark got her Shodan black belt at the young age of 15.^{[citation needed]} Clark came to prominence when winning the Scottish Championships in 1997. In 2000 and 2001 she won back to back half-middleweight British titles at the British Judo Championships.^[3]

In 2004, she was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece, she competed in the half-middleweight (-63 kg) category and reached the last 16, where she was beaten by the eventual silver medalist, Claudia Heill. She then lost to Ronda Rousey in the first round of the repechage.^[4] Also during 2004 she won a bronze medal at the 2004 European Judo Championships, in Bucharest.^[2]

Two more British titles were secured in 2005 and 2006^[5] and she achieved her best result to date, which was a European gold medal at the 2006 European Judo Championships, in Tampere.^[2]

In 2008, she went to her second Olympic Games, at the 2008 Summer Olympics, she again lost to Heill, this time in the first round^[6] of the women's 63 kg. The following year in 2009, a silver medal at the 2009 European Judo Championships took her tally to a European medal of every colour. From 2008 to 2012 she secured three more British titles, bringing her total to seven.^[5]

She suffered a broken arm in 2009, which required surgery. During the recovery process she intensely trained the left-handed uchimata.^{[citation needed]}

Clark ended her Olympic career on a high note by gaining selection for her home Olympic Games in London. Dropping down a weightclass, she competed in the women's 57 kg category, where she lost in the first round to Automne Pavia.^[7][8][4]

In 2014, she won the gold medal in the 63kg for Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.