5 players represented Ford judo club in Belgium the weekend with mixed results, from under performing to rising to the challenge and giving personal best performances.
Kelly Stadden competing in the -48kg was under par losing 2 of her fights then withdrawing from the 3rd due to a knee injury. Tom Williams -81kg competed in the under 20 section and the 18 year old looked impressive. Dominating his first fight and winning comfortably. His second was against an opponent he had met previously. His low wrestling style of judo spoilt William's upright judo this and took him out of his rhythm, a low leg grab from Williams opponent gained a minor score which he could not recover from, new rule changes due in 2010 will prohibit this style of judo which will bode well for the pure judoist. Tom won his next 2 fight convincingly but unfortunately came up against the same opponent he had lost to earlier, although a much better fought fight, the outcome was the same.
Sunday had 3 members fighting, Matthew Kavanagh - 66kg, Richard Jackson - 55kg and Chloe Jackson -52kg. Matthew beat the strongest 2 players in his pool but seemed to run out of steam in his 3rd just losing out on a minor score. His next fight which he needed to win to progress was over to soon when he was caught with a throw gaining maximum points to knock Matthew out of the competition. The 2 players he had beat progressed out of the pool and on to compete for medals.
Richard Jackson was on fine form, looking fit and fast and carried a positive attitude throughout his bouts. He won his first fight controlling his opponents with his grips and using forceful attacks to win by points, he then battled well on his next but lost to the eventual winner. This was a particular hard competition with 15 countries competing and the task was made harder as only one bronze medal was being contested for when normally there are 2. Jackson won his next 3 fights which would normally have given him 3rd position but not this time, the two 3rd place players had to fight off, a small mistake and a loss of control gave his opponent the upper hand and a small knock down resulted in Jackson getting pinned to lose the fight, but this was a solid performance from Jackson and produced one of the throws of the day.
No relation But Chloe Jackson was running on high from her recent National Championship title, Jackson won her first fight in 7 seconds with a lightning fast throw, this put her against one of 2 strong French players, this was closely contested, both giving their all. No score in normal time see Golden Score time added, first to score wins, this was to go against Jackson which only left a possible bronze medal to contend for. Winning her next fight meant she had to meet the other French player who had seemed to be the better of the 2 French girls. Knowing this was for the bronze medal and the last fight of the day, all eyes were on her mat. Finding her form once again she hit the French Player with very strong attacks, one of which gained Jackson 7 points, from here she pinned her opponent to finish the fight and gain maximum points. Her medal was presented by Neil Adams MBE, 2 times World Champion and 2 times Olympic Silver medallist.
The K2 Venue at Crawley hosted an Orange belt and under competition which gave the clubs less experienced players a chance to take part in a grade restricted tournament of Orange belt and under.
First up for was Thomas Medaglia, who again put in a good performance and although he lost both of his contests, fought some high graded fighters and gained some invaluable experience. James Allen was next up, competing well and displaying some great judo also showed that he has learnt from his last couple of competitions by eradicating a couple of technical issues, and in his second fight, was leading well until being caught by a very debatable ten point score which ended his progress. Next it was the girls turn with Martia Medaglia. Despite just about moving up to the next weight she showed great determination and fought against much more experienced girls, and took home a well deserved Bronze medal. Then Alana Stephenson fought amazingly well. Winning her first fight by maximum ten points in under ten seconds, and then her second fight with a 7 point throw, following the girl down to hold her to complete the maximum score. In the final, she faced a girl who beat her a couple of weeks ago. Alana fought extremely well, and took the fight to her opponent, but unfortunately lost by a small point in golden score, a fantastic performance by her. Finally, Sarah Allen took the gold medal in her merged category, fighting some girls a lot bigger than her, the highlight being her 1st fight showing real grit to dig deep and throw a much taller girl for two 7 point scores which gave her the outright win, and once again showed that when she is determined she can produce the results that we know she is capable of.
A great effort by all the kids.
Bill...
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