Beijing Paralympic bronze medallist Sam Ingram captured Britain’s second IBSA VI European Championship title on Saturday as he followed Ben Quilter’s opening day success by taking gold in the -90kg category at K2 Arena in Crawley.

The 26-year-old, who trains at JudoScotland’s National Training Centre in Ratho, a recognised British Judo Performance Centre, started his campaign with a stirring victory over Rick Slangen of the Netherlands.

The win produced a semi-final meeting with decorated Russian Oleg Kretsul, the reigning Paralympic champion.

Kretsul, 36, who took silver in Athens, was a tenacious competitor as he firmly dealt with Sam’s best attacks before the determined Brit started to wear down his game opponent and took the hard-fought victory by ippon.

In the final Sam produced a lung-bursting effort against France’s Olivier Cugnon. The 2010 IBSA VI World silver medallist was spurred on by a partisan crowd and sealed the first VI European title of his career with a devastating tomoe-nage.

Sam Ingram seals gold with tomoe-nage

Sam Ingram said: “I’ve been chasing top spot for a long time, it was ideal getting to fight the Russian Kretsul and Frenchman Cugnon.

“The team has managed to gel quickly, we’ve got a good mix of younger and older judoka and it’s been a good weekend for us.”

On top of the -90kg medal rostrum

Britain’s Dan Powell was also in action for Britain as he saw action in the -81kg category.

Dan, 20, was cheered on by a crowd including his team-mate and brother Marc and father Terry, a former VI World Champion.

The Liverpool judoka faced Russian Anatoly Shevchenko in his opening bout and immediately pressed for an opening.

However, after a strong start the Dartford-based judoka was unfortunately disqualified for a rule infringement having been adjudged to have tried to sweep his opponents standing leg forward.