Budokan Rotterdam Training Camp

For the fifth year we went over to Rotterdam for their annual randori camp. There were nearly 500 judoka on the mat over the 3 days and I finished off my year with over 70 tough randoris.  This was really hard work but needed before January.

Zantaraia & Tonbridge Camp

After a good days training at Dartford with Georgii Zantaraia and Vladimir Soroka organised by the England squad it was a thrill to stay down with Chris Bowles for a couple of days before the Tonbridge Camp.  Chris inspires judo players without even trying and really motivated me to push myself further in the sport. This year the Tonbridge camp was as hard as ever with many fighters my size and was just what I needed before the 2013 season starts. If you want the best randori camp Britain has to offer then this is the ONLY camp of its type in the country.  No logs, hills or mud just full on scrapping in a venue not to be beaten anywhere.

link to the Camp

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

Southern Area Open

After the Nationals I moved quickly up to -55 for good and this was my first event.  It was important I did well to get up the -55 ranking list in time for the nationals. I was bang on form and won my earlier rounds well beating Kieran Davin before meeting James Fowler in the final. I controlled the fight scoring a couple of times before throwing for ten and taking the title.

Three times British Champion

A picture taken at school with my three British Championship Gold Medals

British Championships 2012

This year should have been my last as a cadet and this Championships should have been for 97/98 fighters.  Due to the change in cadet ages in Europe the BJA left this years competition at the same age band as last year 96/97. They have also changed next years Championships to 96/97/98.  This was my last competition at -50 and I am going to move up to -55 after this competition. I came into the competition hoping to win my third British Championships in a row.

Elliot Gladwin (Alpha) First Fight

I had never fought Elliot before but started the event well and won with a strangle after about 30 seconds.

Jack Murphy (Pro Judo) Semi Final

I have fought Jack many times and controlled the grips well before winning with a sangaku strangle.

Dominic Reilly (Sportif) Final

Dominic is tough but I was still fresh and fighting well. I jumped in on Dominics first attack and won in 22 seconds with a strangle.

Winning all my fights with strangles was very pleasing but most of all it was winning my third Championships in a row.  As a bonus I picked up my first 10 points towards my Dan Grade. Next years British Championships has been brought forward to January and with me just moving up to -55 this will be a hard challenge......but I like hard challenges !!!!

2012 Results

Focused or what

The moment before victory

The moment of victory

British Champion 2012

Medals with Winnie G

High Peak Sports Awards

I was again invited to attend the 2012 High Peak Sports Awards which were held in the Pavillion Gardens, Buxton. It was a night where the High Peak celebrated the 2012 Olympics and welcomed home some of its medalists. At the end of the night the High Peak Sports Awards were presented.  For the fourth time I won the Junior Sportsman of the Year Award and was presented with a nice trophy by our Paralympic Gold Medal cyclist. I will now hopefully get nominated to attend the Derbyshire Awards later this year.

Warsaw Open 2012

This year the Warsaw Open was again held in the massive Torwar sports hall.  There were 8 contest mats and a raised platform final mat.  There were nearly 1200 fighters from twenty countries and this is one of the strongest events of the year.  Only 3/4 of the Cadet European Cups are harder than this competition. Each mat also had a video care system for all ages u14/u16/u19 and two big screens kept all the fighters up to date with the running order.  There was also a live internet feed with updated results on their web site. After the competition there was also a three day training camp which was attended by more than 200 fighters.  In preparation for the British Championships I decided to fight up at -55kg ready for me moving up in November. There were 43 fighters in my group with many National Champions making it a very difficult group.

Martynas Kvedaras (Lithuania) First Fight

This was a tough start to the competition as I knew Martynas was a good fighter.  I was happy to start the competition well winning with 2 wazaris.

Patryk Kastner (Poland) Second Fight

My second fight was against a Polish fighter.  It was a tough contest which I won with a yuko.

Alexey Gruntov (Russia) Third Fight

Alexey had finished third in this years Russian National Championships.  It was a tough fight and I got thrown for ippon.  I needed Alexey to reach the Semi-Finals for me to get pulled back in. Alexey won his next two fights and also went on to win the weight group without really being challenged.

Me with Alexey at the training camp.  I fought him six times at the camp and did manage to throw him quite a few times. Alexey finished fifth at this years Cadet European Cup in Tver so I was pleased how the fights went.

Matej Vidmar (Slovenia) Fourth Fight

This was going to be a really hard fight.  Matej is the Slovenian National Champion and he had also won the Warsaw Open the previous year.  He is a big fighter but half way through the fight I threw him for ippon with a technique I picked up at the Zantaraia camp a few weeks ago.

Adam Kovacs (Hungary) Fifth Fight

I was fighting well and threw Adam for Ippon after about 90 seconds.

Ruslans Soha (Latvia) Sixth Fight

Ruslans is a strong fighter and the current Latvian Champion.  It was a close fight all the way through and I got caught late on in the fight.  This was a fight I should have won but was pleased with the way I had performed in the 55's at such a tough event.

I had some great fights in the training camp with all the Russian lads and look forward to coming again next year.

2012 Results

Warsaw Judo Open, Poland

Next weekend I will attend the Warsaw Judo Open in Poland.  This is now one of the strongest events in Europe. Everything about this event makes it one of the events not to miss.  This year there will be a three day training camp after the competition.  This will be fantastic preparation for this years British Championships

Warsaw Judo Open

Sports Aid Funding

It was great to receive some funding from Sports Aid today.  This will help with the costs and enable me to attend more training camps over the next year.

Sports Aid

Welsh Open 2012

Only one week after the Heart of England I fought in the Welsh Open an Cardiff. I wanted to have a go at the -55kg weight group and see how I would do.  All four of the medalists from the Heart were down on the entry list but Danny moved up to the -60kg,

Harry Lovell Hewitt (Stroud) First Fight
Harry has dominated the Pre-Cadet age band and it was a tough first fight. The fight went all the way and I won with a wazari

Joshua Awiti (Enfield)  Semi-Final
This was the first time I had fought Josh and I found it difficult to get into the fight. Again the fight went all the way and I won by 2 shidos

Freddy Hendy (Polkeith) Final
Freddy was fighting really well and it was a tough final but I managed to score a yuko in Golden Score.

I was pleased to win Gold in the -55s but not with the way I fought. It was good not to fight well and still win the group.  I will next fight in the Warsaw Open in Poland and do a two day training camp after the competition.

Heart of England 2012

This is the first competition in the new age bands.  The 1996 players moved out to Junior and the 1998 moved up from Pre-Cadet.  There are some good players moving up and they give me a different challenge. I will still fight at -50 until after the October Nationals but want to have a go at -55 for the Welsh Open next weekend.

Jack Ferry (Edinburgh ) First Fight
It was a good start to the competition and I controlled the fight winning with a hold down

Oliver Harris (Osaka)
Oliver is a good fighter and I was pleased to catch him early on with my drop sode

Jack Murphy (Pro Judo)
Jack is always a tough fight but I was on good form and threw him for ippon with kata guruma

Joshua O'Connor (Gendros)
Josh is easily the top fighter moving up to cadet and he had some good wins on the other mat to reach the final. Still I controlled it well throwing him for Wazari and Ippon within 45 seconds.

Next weekend I will fight at the same age band but at -55kg

Link to the Results on Judo Technologies: Heart of England Results

Zantaraia Session

After a long hard ETD training Camp in Kendal I went down to Dartford Judo Club to do a training session with the amazing Zantaraia.  His judo is sick and I picked up a lot.  Watch out for some ninja moves coming your way very soon.

Brilliant Video

Lithuania Training Camp

I traveled over to Lithuania for a Training Camp.  In total there were 15 of us who went over with other players from Shadsworth and SKK coming with us.  It was a really tough camp and I really pushed the randori doing four sessions a day fighting on both the Junior and Senior sessions.  I had over 50 randoris.

National Team Championships

This year the North west Area managed to put all three teams into the competition.  It was a great team event and it was great to be part of a team.

There were eight Junior boys teams entered.  The lowest weight in the team was -34 going up to 81+.  Teams were placed into two groups of four and we were in a group with the Northern Area, Midlands Area and the Southern area.

  

v Southern Area (First  Match)

In our first match we fought well managing to beat the Southern area 5-4.  I beat Adam Khakiev.

v Midland Area (Second Match)

In our second match we were up against the strong Midland team losing the contest 4-5.  In my contest I defeated Robbie Beedles.

v Northern Area (Third Match)

In our final match we needed to beat the Northern Area in order to go through to the semi-finals.  We all fought really well winning the match 7-3.  I defeated Alex hampshire in my contest.

v Scotland (Semi-Final)

Our Semi-Final draw was against the strong Scotland team.  Their team was full of top talent and the final score was an 9-1 beating.

Finishing with a Bronze medal was a good result for the North West.

Graz International, Austria

Last weekend I went to Austria for the Graz International.  A big event and it had 1400 fighters from 21 countries. Again I fought in two weight groups.  Under 17 -50kg and Under 20 -55kg.

Under 17 Section

Tomer Kimchi (Israel) First Fight

Won with Ippon

Artem Lesyuk (Ukraine) Second Fight

Lost by Yuko

Samual Waizenegger (Switzerland) Third Fight

Won by Ipppon

Tim Schwab (Germany) Fourth Fight

Lost by hold down

I was not pleased with the way I fought especially in my last fight.  The fight against the Ukrainian lad was very close.

Under 20 Section

There were only seven in this weight group and I was the luck one to get a bye

Lorenz Wildner (Austria) First Fight

Lost by Ippon

Csaba Biro (Romania) Bronze Fight

Won By Ippon
I was please with the way I dominated this tall Romanian and winning another medal in Austria.

Kent International

On the 24th June I fought in the Kent International at Crystal Palace.  I was entered in the Blue/Brown belt section at -50kg

Section C -16       Results

Sasha Aguerreberry (Ealing) First Fight

I had not fought Sasha before but started the competition well throwing him for ippon with drop sode.

Joshua O'Connor (Gendros) Second Fight

Josh is a very good fighter who is moving up from Prre-Cadet this year.  I expect to have many good fights with him over the next year. I Threw Josh for Wazari and ippon which was a pleasing result.

Adam Bolwell (Bath) Semi-Final

Another player I had not fought before.  I controlled the fight well winning with a yuko and a wazari.

Sebastian Van Dongen (Netherlands) Final

Sebastian had earlier defeated Koen Van Zeul from The Netherlands so I expected a tough fight.  After about one minute I threw Sebastian for ippon

On the Sunday I had entered the Junior section (under 20) at -50 but there were only two of us in the weight group and the other lad had pulled out injured after fighting on the Saturday.  I was allowed to compete in the -55kg.

Youth Section -20      Results

Tyrell Clarke-Harewood (Moberly) First Fight

I had a bye in the first round before fighting Tyrell.  Tyrell had won the Bronze medal at last years Junior British Championships.  I had to put in lots of attacks and felt on top for most of the first minute.  I did some good transition  into an armlock and won the fight by ippon

James Stringer (Tonbridge) Semi Final

I was buzzing after beating Tyrell and fought my best fight of the weekend beating James with a Yuko, Wazari and an Ippon.

Isaac Gagin (Red Phoenix) Final

Isaac's long legs and o-uchi gari were to much of a problem and he threw me for Wazari before holding me down

This was my best domestic result to date.  To get a medal in the -55 at Juniors when still only -50 was brilliant. To beat the fighters I did was even better.

Venray International, The Netherlands

I have been competing in the Venray International for the last seven year and it is still one of the better competitions in Western Europe.  I was not able to fight last year because I broke my wrist at the London International.  This year I was fighting in the -17 under 50kg section. There were only 11 in my group which was the smallest group I had ever been in at Venray. Last year there were 22 in the same group and out of the eleven this year more than half were from Great Britain.  Despite the small numbers the group had the Bronze Medalist from the recent Russian Judo Championships Nikita Deulin.  It also had Kieran Davin and Peter Miles competing. I don't know who thought it would be funny to put both Russian fighters in the top half along with me, Kieran and Peter.  This draw meant that my first fight would be against the top Russian :(

Nikita Deulin (Russia) First Fight

Nikita was a really strong fighter but I started well getting in a few attacks.  Nikita took control of the fight before throwing me for a yuko and then ippon.  Nikita went on to beat Peter Miles in the next fight and was the eventual gold medalist.

Brayden Quinn (England) Second Fight

I had never fought Brayden in competition before but we have trained together at England Squad sessions. I threw Brayden for Yuko with a new technique I had been working on.

Kieran Davin (Great Britain) Third Fight

The last three times we had fought neither of us has managed any throws with Kieran winning all three on flags.  This time I fought well beating Kieran by a yuko

Dominic Reilly (Scotland) Bronze Fight

I was fighting well by now and was able to control the fight at my pace.  Late on in the fight Mr. Fallons turnover worked well and I held Dominic down for Ippon.

 

Results 2012

This was my fourth medal at this competition (1 x Gold, 1 x Silver and 2 x Bronze)

European Cadet Cup, Berlin, Germany

This was a very poor display and I lost in the first round to Twan De Werf from the Netherlands.  I stayed on for the full training camp.

Berlin Cadet Cup Results

European Cadet Cup, Romania

I travelled over to Romania for the Cadet European Cup.  This was my first big event at -50 and was a real tough event. 

Andras Matics (Hungary) First Fight

Andras is the current Hungarian Champion and has had some good wins on the Cadet tour already this year.  I started well and controlled the fight for the first two minutes and was close to scoring a couple of times. I attempted a pick-up after about three minutes and got thrown for Wazari.  I could not get the score back so was beaten in the first round. Andras went on to win a Bronze Medal

The top half of the draw was really tough.  As well as the Hungarian the impressive Zhengisbek from Khazakstan, Pantano (No2 in Europe), and Braga from Brazil were all just around me in the draw. Braga from Brazil impressed in the first fight beating Pantano in 10 seconds.  This meant that the Hungarian needed to defeat the Brazilian to pull me back in. To my surprise Matics beat the Brazilian with a hold in the last 30 seconds after being dominated all the fight. I now had to fight the Brazilian in the Repecharge

Marcelo Braga (Brazil) Second Fight

This was the first time I had been up against a Brazilian.  Marcelo (age 16) had recently won the Brazilian championships earning him a place on the European Tour with the Brazilian team.  Marcelo will also be fighting in Berlin next weekend. We were both very similar fighters and lots of attacks were going in from us both.  It was a close contest which went into golden score but I got caught with a yuko and was put out of the competition. Marcelo went on to win the other Bronze Medal.

Picture of Marcelo Braga and me before we went on to fight

Results Romania Cadet Cup

Northen Ireland Open, Belfast

Gold Medal. Details to follow

Bremen International Masters

This weekend I have been selected to represent England at the Bremen Masters in Germany. I will be fighting at -46 in the cadet (-17) age band.  This is the hardest competition for cadets anywhere with fighters coming from all over the world.  I hope to continue the form that won me Bronze medals in Lithuania and the Dutch Espoir recently.

My competition started badly and I lost my first fight to Luis Haubold (Germany).  Luis did not get past the second round so I had no chance of getting pulled back in..

Results should be up very quick on the link below:
http://www.mastersbremen.com/masters.php

XX1V International Judo Tournament, Lithuania

This was my first event in Lithuania and also my first abroad at -50kg. I was expecting a tough competition and camp but was surprised at the standard of the Lithuanian fighters. There are only 22 judo clubs in Lithuania but the standard is very very high considering these low numbers.

There were 22 fighters in my group.

Vladimir Proscenko (Latvia) First Fight

I started well throwing for a wazari, 2 yukos then holding Vladimir down for ippon

Ilja Bitarasvili (Lithuania) Second Fight

Ilja was from Georgia but now living in Lithuania. I beat Ilja with a strangle

Edgaras Lizunas (Lithuania) Third Fight

Edgares was one of the local favourites for the competition and I soon could see why. He was super strong and dominated the grip. It was no surprise that Edgares went on to win the Gold Medal. I came off the wrong side of a drop morote and was thrown for ippon.

Robertas Mingaila (Lithuania) Fourth Fight

I threw Robertas for Wazari then held him down for the ippon.

Maks Vrublevskis Latvia (Fifth Fight)

Maks was a tricky fighter but I threw him for Yuko then won with a sangaku strangle.

Anton Gorelik (Lithuania) Bronze Fight

In the bronze fight I was a yuko up before putting on another sangaku strangle right on the buzzer

North West Age Band

I attended the North West Age Band ranking Event on the 18th Feb 2012.
I was in a pool of 5 along with Dominic Reilly, Jack Murphy, Jacob Gehlan and Daniel Laws.
I won all my fights with ippon throws to win the Gold Medal.

Results

Midland Under 20

I attended the Midlands u20 age banded competition at Walsall.  I was fighting in the -46 weight group.
My first fights was an ippon win against Kieran Kelly (Zodiac).  My second fight was a tough one against Dominin Reily (Sportif) which I won by Ippon in Golden Score.  In the final I beat Jack Murphy (Pro Judo) to win the Gold Medal.

Results

Derbyshire Podium Athlete

I have been nominated and selected as one of the 2012 Derbyshire Podium Athletes.  With this I have also received £200 funding for the coming year.  This will help with my training costs.

Matsuru Dutch Espoir, The Netherlands

This year was my fourth time at this competition. In the last three years the best I had done was a fifth place and I normally don't fight very well in this event. I had trained hard over Christmas and again did the Rotterdam training camp at De-Korte judo club and then the ETD camp at Sheffield. I felt like I was on form coming into this years competition. There were 36 fighters in my weight group, and this was my first year in the new under 17 age band. All the best fighters from The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium were at the event as well as fighters from France, Denmark, Poland, Hungary and Great Britain.

Luka Stoikov (The Netherlands) First Fight

I had a good draw for my first fight but I was slow getting going and the fight went the full 4 minutes and I won by Wazari

Jorre Verstraeten (Belgium) Second Fight

Jorre is a great fighter and won the Belgium Championships in 2011 at -38. Jorre had beaten me in this event last year. It was a very tough fight but I caught him with a drop sode for wazari and won the fight to get into the next round. I knew that Jorre was fighting well as he went on to win Bronze medal beating both Jens Melawany and Mathijs van Harten.

Rutger Visser (The Netherlands) Third Fight

Rutger is also a top Dutch fighters who had won the Dutch Nationals in 2010. I had fought him a few times at the Rotterdam training camp over Christmas and he was very strong. After my win against Jorre I was fighting well and threw Rutger for a yuko then and Ippon to reach the semi-finals.

Abdullah Adashev (Belgium) Semi-Final

This was the first time I had fought Abdullah who is the current Belgium champion at -42. Abdullah and his brother Yusup are from Chechnia but now live in Belgium. They are both great fighters. This was going to be a really hard fight but I put in a really good display and the fight lasted the full four minutes and it was a good effort to only lose by a yuko. I was now in the Bronze medal fight.

Aymeric Conet (Belgium) Bronze Fight

I had lost to Aymeric at Harnes in December quite quickly and knew he was a strong fighter. It was a really tough battle with many close scores for us both. The fight went the full six minutes and thankfully the flags went 2-1 in my favour.

To get any medal in this event is really hard and more so this year as it seemed that all of the best fighters were here.

Link to results and Photos:

http://www.jbn-zuidnederland.nl/