St. Petersburg Judo Competition, Russia

At the end of April I went over to St. Petersburg, Russia for the 13th Children Olympic Start competition. It was a really big impressive venue. Although I enjoyed the trip I was not impressed with the referee on my mat. Although It was clear that I easily won the fight it was awarded to the Russian boy. Never mind we had a great trip.

Duisberg International, Germany

Segej Rempel (Germany) First Fight
He was a tall good fighter. I threw him with sode tsuri komi goshi for a wazari then held him down for the Ippon.

Pawel Kruachante (Germany) Second Fight
Pawel was a small fighter like me he was tough to throw. I kept on attacking which got him two shidos. I then threw him for ippon.

Bernd Lemmens (Semi-Final) Third Fight
Bernd is the number 1 in Belgium and is a very good strong fighter. It was more a gripping fight than a throwing fight but when we got grips I attacked straight away so he got a two penalties for not attacking.

Jens Malewany (Germany) Final
He was a tough fighter but I dominated the attacking and he got three penalties which won me the fight and the Gold Medal.

I was really pleased with the way I fought. I have not fought well the last few weeks and it has took a long time to recover from my virus. I am now fighting well and strong again. I am looking forward to my trip to Russia this week.

Rouen International, France

I had a great trip over to France with the Yorkshire & Humberside squad for the 2010 Rouen International. My dad said this used to be a harder competition but this year it was rubbish. There were not many entrants and the judo was very poor.. I won the Gold with Connor Potts winning the Silver. We had a good time though.

Mions International, Lyon, France

Mions is a very hard competition. There were 700 fighters from 12 countries. There were lots of regional teams from France taking part. I had 27 in my under 34kg weight group. I did not like the rules this year as you had to take a grip with both hands before you were allowed to attack. We stayed with Antoine and Monique they are very nice and it gives me a chance to try my French. I really enjoy the waffles with chocolate that Monique makes all day at the competition.

Jessym Bourouaha (France) First Fight

I was happy to win my first fight with an Ippon

Antoine Routier (France) Second fight

Antoine was a good fighter who had won the under 30kg section in 2009. I threw Antoine for Ippon but it did not count because I had only gripped him with one hand. Antoine countered my poor O-Uchi-Gari late on and won the fight with a Wazari.

Lucas Charpin (France) Third Fight

Lucas was a good fighter from one of the regional Teams. I got 2 early scores and defended well. With 10 seconds left I threw Lucas with a big Ippon Seoi-Nage.

Massard Guilaud ( France) Fourth Fight

Christian was a very tall fighter. This fight went the distance and I won it with a wazari and a yuko.

Dylan Dias (Belgium) Bronze Medal Fight

Dylan is a very good fighter but I was fighting better now. I controlled the fight winning it with 2 wazaris.

I was very pleased to come back and win a bronze after losing to Antoine. The group was won by Gwenael Duny. He is a good strong fighter from Marseille. We got on very well and I look forward to some good fights with him.

On Monday there was a good training camp with more than 250 on the mat