Harnes International, France

Harnes is a really tough event and generally you can have about 50 in your group.  This year there were other events on the same day so many top French did not come. There were many top fighters who had travelled from Belgium so the event would still be tough.

Kobe Persyn (Belgium) First Fight
After a first round bye I had a tough fight against this tough fighter from Belgium. Kobe lost out in the final of Venray this year losing to Danny Powell although he did beat Danny in Flanders. I knew it would be a hard fight but I threw Kobe for ippon in golden score after we had both scored wazari's in normal time. This was a good start to the event.

Dorian Lesaffre (France) Second Fight
My second fight I won easily with ippon against a French fighter I did not know.

EZ-Zerrad Naoufal (Belgium)
My semi-Final opponent was going to be a hard fight.  He had recently won Gold at the Flanders Cup in a large group consisting of many top -55 players including Roy Koffiberg. I came out attacking and fighting well and threw with Te-Guruma for which the referee scored ippon. Sadly both corner judges only scored Wazari which was suprising as one of them certainly could not have any idea what the score was. I let this decision get to me and was sloppy the rest of the fight getting thrown for ippon. My mistake...

Coen Van Winden (Netherlands) Bronze Fight
I recovered from my defeat well in time for the Bronze Fight and was up against the Dutch -15 National Champion who had defeated Callum George the fight earlier. In top form I won with yuko and then an armlock to take the Bronze Medal.

Results Link