Team Ireland has officially selected the Judo team to compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo with siblings Ben and Megan Fletcher chosen.
The Fletcher duo will be representing Ireland in their respective men and women’s events, the first time team Ireland has had a representative in both events. The siblings are set to compete in what is Japan’s national sport, and they will compete in the Nippon Budokan on the 28 – 29 July 2021.
The Fletcher siblings are born and raised Wokingham, England, but are eligible to represent Ireland due to their mother who hails from Bruff.
The duo are well decorated in the sport of judo and have been representing Ireland since 2017.
Megan, who will compete in the 70kg division, is only the second women to represent Ireland in Olympic judo after Lisa Kearney in 2012. Last June, she fought at the World Championships in Hungary and took home bronze, the highest level ever by an Irish judoka.
Prior to that stellar finish in June, she made the podium at the Marrakech, Tel Aviv and Montreal Grand Prix and was seventh at the European Games in Minsk in 2019. Megan also won bronze at the European Open in Belgrade and another bronze at the European Cadet Championship in 2005.
Speaking on her selection, Megan said,
“Being selected for the Olympics means the absolute worlds to me. I am so proud to have made the Irish team and to be flying the flag at my first Games! It has been such a long road to this point, and I couldn’t be more excited to get over to Tokyo and fight now!
Megan’s younger brother Ben is set to Compete in the 100kg division. A former world junior bronze medallist, multiple Grand Slam and Grand Prix winner, Ben has also been representing Ireland since 2017. Despite breaking his leg in two places prior to representing Ireland, Ben has still managed to secure a gold medal at the Tunis Grand Prix in 2018, the first Irish judoka to ever win an IJF World Tour event.
In the same year, Ben won silver at the Dusseldorf Grand Slam and bronze at the Antalya Grand Prix. In 2019 he had three top three Grand Prix finishes, in Tel Aviv, Marrakech and Hohhot, and won bronze at the Grand Slam in Baku. Already an Olympian, Ben represented team GB in the 2016 Olympics in Rio where he finished 17th.
This was the final team announcement for Team Ireland, with the overall number of athletes consisting of 116 athletes, as well as an additional 11 ‘P’ athletes or reserves. The Olympic Games in Tokyo will run from the 23rd July to 8th August 2021.
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