Megan Fletcher (born 2 August 1989) is an Irish judoka, who was born in England. She previously represented England and Great Britain judo at the international level before competing for the Republic of Ireland.

Personal history

Megan Fletcher was born on 2 August 1989 in Reading, England. She was schooled at The Emmbrook School, in Wokingham, before going to the University of Bath, where she has trained since 2007 with Team Bath. she resides in Wokingham, which is where her club, Pinewood Judo Club, is located. Besides judo, Fletcher is a trained geography teacher, and teaches part-time at The Castle School, Thornbury, South Gloucestershire.

Judo career

Fletcher began judo at the age of 5, and became a first dan black belt at the age of 15. In 2011, Fletcher participated for Great Britain at the

World University Games The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

in China. At the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

, held in Glasgow, Scotland, Fletcher beat

Moira de Villiers Moira de Villiers (born 16 March 1990), also known by her married name of Koster, is a South African-born New Zealand judoka. She competed in the 70 kg event at the 2012 Summer Olympics losing in the first round. She competed in the women's 7 ...

of New Zealand in the 70 kilograms judo final, by ippon with

tate shiho gatame is one of the seven mat holds, Osaekomi-waza, of Kodokan Judo. In grappling terms, it is categorized as a mounted position. Technique description

. Fletcher reached the final despite the fact that she had her face taped up after suffering an injury to her nose against the "gold medal hope" Sally Conway of Scotland in the semi-finals; Conway was the British judo number one going into the tournament. After her victory in the final, Fletcher dedicated it to her sensei, Don Werner, who had been her coach at Pinewood and died in January 2014 of cancer. Fletcher's younger brother Ben Fletcher was due to compete in the judo category, but a week before the event he suffered an injury and was forced to withdraw; he was replaced by Danny Williams. Megan is currently ranked 40th in the world in the 70kg category by the International Judo Federation. In 2020, she competed in the women's 70 kg event at the

2020 European Judo Championships The 2020 European Judo Championships were held in Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohem ...

held in Prague, Czech Republic. In 2021, she competed in the women's 70 kg event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo, Japan. Megan now works as a Geography teacher at The Castle School Thornbury.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Megan 1989 births Living people English female judoka Irish female judoka Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Judoka at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Reading, Berkshire Sportspeople from Wokingham Commonwealth Games medallists in judo European Games competitors for Ireland Judoka at the 2015 European Games Judoka at the 2019 European Games Judoka at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic judoka for Ireland Medallists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Alumni of the University of Bath