Meyer wins bronze at Commonwealth Games

Australian Amy Meyer has claimed the first Jewish medal at the Commonwealth Games after she won bronze in the 48kg judo competition.

With two bronze medals awarded in each weight class of the judo, the 22-year-old reached the podium as she committed two penalties to Barbados’ Onoh-Obasi Okey’s three, on the first day of action in Glasgow.

Speaking to the Australian Jewish News, she said: “It’s a dream to be selected in the Australian team and have the chance to represent Australia, I hope it will be the stepping stone to the 2016 Olympics in Rio.”

Ranked second back home in Australia, she admits there have been obstacles along the way into reaching Glasgow. “I have been training and competing in judo since I was seven so it’s been a long road,” she said. “The lead up to Glasgow has been really hard – juggling university, work and training means there’s not much time for anything else.

“A couple of weeks before competition, I really have to watch my weight.”

Despite the pressures, Meyer managed to graduate from Sydney University last year, with a degree in exercise sport science.

“I’ve put my career on hold to pursue this dream. I have been able to make judo my number one priority this year,” she said.

Also a bronze medalist at this year’s Oceania Championship, she started judo at seven, but might not have become a medalist if she didn’t rediscover her passion for the sport after a long break. “At the age of 17 or 18 I kind of had enough and I just said to my coach, `look, I need a break or else I’ll hate it’,” she said. “I came back and fell back in love.”

Her latest medal win on Thursday night was almost grabbed away from her when in the dying seconds of her fight, Okey pulled off what seemed like a winning throw. A point was added to the scoreboard before being quickly removed. But saying she was never concerned, she said: “I didn’t actually think it was a throw and the ref cleared it, so there was no time to really even process it.”