Back on the Contest Mat

After such a long time, it was nice to be taking a team to a competition again. The 530 alarm call, not so nice. We took a team of 5 to the return of the Warwick University invitational tournament and came away with a nice collection of 3 medals.

U66 Intermediate Men

First into action was Alex in the u66 weight group in the intermediate category. Despite declaring himself nervous for his first competition in some time, he won his first fight with a hold and then decided that energy conservation was the name of the day and wrapped up his second pool contest and the finals with rapid ippon throws to take a well deserved gold.

U81 Novice Men

In the u81 Novice category we had Alex’s brother Rob and Henry in action. Both put in good performances, improving as they settled in to the action. Henry had a tough 5 man pool and was unfortunate to not be able to pick up the wins that would have got him to the knockout stage.

Rob fought well in his pool but so did several players and they were left with extra contests to resolve a 3 way tie to determine the players that would got to the knockout. 2 good wins put Rob on the way to the knockout, but a loss in the first round left him just short of the medals.

U66 Novice Men

In this category we had Hisham in action, and like Henry he was drawn in a 5 man pool giving him 4 contests to deal with before the knockout phase. Starting out a little nervous he soon settled in and won his pool with 4 ippon results.

In the knockout things naturally got tougher and the semi final turned into an epic battle, proceeding into golden score and with the total contest time exceeding 8 minutes and before Hisham was able to pull off another ippon win, to proceed to the final. Having been through that, it wasn’t a huge surprise that his opponent in the final proved fresher but his silver medal was very well deserved.

U63 Dan Grade Women

Our final representative was Niamh in the u63 Dan Grade women. Some nice sacrifice techniques helped her to lead the points ranking in her pool and into the finals. The semi final was a close battle with some masterful escapes from ne-waza situations but in the end Niamh was caught with a throw and had to settle for a bronze medal.

Results for everyone

Three medals was a nice haul for players that are new to the club, but just as important was being able to see our players in action and start to identify aspects of their judo to work on as we prepare for the next event – the university championships as the end of February.