Sunday 23 March 2014

Junior European Cup, Portugal


It was great to be selected for the Portugal Junior Cup. Along with four other cadets who have been rewarded for their hard work and recent results.



Michael Zeltner (Austria) First Round, Age 20
I knew going into the fight that I had to perform to beat Michael and he was very good. I started the day off well by beating him with a rear naked strangle.

Alberto Martin Gaitero (Spain) Second Round, Age 17
Alberto was a cadet like me and I knew he was a strong fighter from watching him last year. He had a Gold and two Silvers from Cadet Cups last year as well as Third at EYOF and Fifth at the ECC. I carried my good form from my first fight into this one winning in 15 seconds with a standing seoi-nage. 

Antoine Bouchard (Canada) Third Round, Age 20
Antoine had a gold and Silver from this event the last two years and looked and felt four years older. I was dominated for most of the fight and only to lose by one penalty didn't really tell the story of the contest. Antoine went on to win the event again pulling me back into the repecharge.

Hjalte Nielson (Denmark) Rep First Fight, Age 19
Got lucky in this fight. Just managed to get out of a hold with three seconds to go and then got thrown for with but he used his arm to assist the throw and got disqualified.

Tom Meulensteen (The Netherlands) Rep Second Fight, Age 17
Tom was a very strong and awkward fight for me and I struggled to throw him until the last 30 seconds where I threw him for a yuko with uchi-mata to win the contest.

Jelmer Touw (The Netherlands) Bronze medal Contest, Age 19
Jelmer has been one of the top Dutch fighters for years now. I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleased with the way the contest went. I dominated the grips and countered his ashi-waza attempts twice and scored a yuko with one to finish the contest off with quick transition into juji-gatame.









Judo Inside Results

ippon.org


Saturday 8 March 2014

Junior English Open

This was the first time I had entered the English Open which was held at the impressive Ice Sheffield Venue. I love this arena and I won all my three British Championships here. Fighting at -66kg I was obviously one of the youngest in the group which was packed with top talent. Leo and Edgar were the other Cadets fighting in the event as was British Champion Tom Johnson and most of the other top Junior fighters. Aiden was still recovering from his knee injury but hopefully will be back soon. With Aiden missing I was seeded number two for the event.

Sina Dehdari (Hillingdon) First Fight
Started well and controlled the fight winning with a throw and a hold.

Edgar Polovinkins (Ernest Bevin) Second Fight
Edgar is a really good fighter. Took a while to get control of the grips but when I did the fight turned my way and I won with an Ippon.

Kyle Clark Harweood (Moberly) Semi-Final
Kyle is a top fighter but has been away from the circuit for a while. It was a close contest which I was leading by penalties before Kyle went old school and grabbed my leg and was disqualified.

Thomas Johnson (Yoshin Ryu) Final
Reaching the final was a real bonus and I was up against Tom who had beaten me to take Gold at the Junior Nationals a few months ago. I have settled well into both my weight group and the Junior section and feel I can match most players now. My gripping was bang on today and I had no issues with the new rules. I felt good through the final winning with a Yuko. Tom had a great fight in the Semi-Final defeating Leo who had earlier narrowly beaten George Goldsmith.

This was a great preparation for next weekends Junior European Cup in Portugal.






Wednesday 5 March 2014

SSE Next Generation and Sports Aid Workshop




Had a great couple of days at the Sports Aid and SSE presentation and Workshop held at Loughborough. It started when we arrived on Monday Night and received our SSE kit and checked into our rooms at the Link Hotel. We had a great night meeting other SSE Next Generation Athletes as well as Cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy and Olympic Diver, and Splash Judge, Leon Taylor. We had a fabulous dinner with a sports quiz and it was great to have Sir.Chris Hoy on our team. That night we were presented with our funding cheque and also told that we will be going up to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games. The next day was a day full of workshops put on by Sports Aid. There were some great sessions on Media Training, Anti-Doping. Mentoring and Nutrition. Tim Lawler from Sports Aid and Leon Taylor ran the show all day as well as talks from other SSE ambassadors and Rebecca Adlington's mum who gave a talk to all the parents and coaches.
SSE have made a four year commitment to Sports Aid and to be involved in the first year and also the Commonwealth Year is a real honor. Hopefully I will get a chance to do some work with Sports Aid and SSE in the run up to the Games.