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

Southern Area Open

This year the Southern Area Open was held at the K2

Sam Choudrey (Pinewood) First Fight
I won my first fight with a hold down

Aaron Cook (Eastleigh) Second Fight
I won my second fight by Ippon

Sam Blair (Pinewood) Semi Final
Sam is a good fighter and I was pleased to beat him by Wazari

Kieran Kelly (Zodiac) Final
Kieran had been fighting well to get to the final. I threw Kieran with a foot sweep for Ippon

North West Open

The North West was the second ranking event and I was in the Pre-Cadet under 34kg

Sean Dorans (Scotland) First Fight
I beat Sean with an Ippon early in the fight.
Daniel Laws (Newburn)
I also won my second fight and held Daniel down in the first minute.
Miles Nelson (New Star) Semi-Final
I was slow to start in the semi but held Miles down to get into the final
Daniel Laws (Newburn) Final
I was in control and scored three Yukos but could not catch Daniel for an ippon. I won the Gold Medal and 10 more ranking points

Midlands Under 20

The Midland event was the first ranking event of the year. I wanted to get off to a winning start to the year.

Josh Stringer (Scotland) First Fight

I won my first fight in 10 seconds.

Myles Nelson (New Star) Second Fight

I threw Miles with Tomo-Nage in 25 seconds.

Callum McDonald (Scotland)

I threw Callum for Ippon to take the Gold Medal and 10 ranking points.

Dutch Espoir, The Netherlands

I went over to Eindhoven for the 2010 Dutch Espoir. This is a really big comp on 12 mats.

I won four of my six fights but lost for the Bronze Medal

Wayclef V. Ruyven (The Netherlands) First Fight

I won my first fight with a Wazari.

Joey Korver (The Netherlands) Second Fight

This was a very tough fight which went all the way to flags. I won 3-0

Sandor De Jong (The Netherlands) Third Fight

Sandor is a very good fighter and was one of the favourites for the competition. I got caught and lost the fight.

Jacob Van Heesvelde (Belgium) Fourth Fight

I was in the repecharge now but was confident and fighting well. I won the fight with an Ippon

Manuel Blaak (The Netherlands) Fifth Fight

Manuel is also a great fighter and I was pleased to beat him with a Yuko

Stefan Papadopoulos (The Netherlands) Bronze Fight

This was not a good fight. Stefan was injured from his last fight and I was feeling sick. I lost to a hold down

Budokan Training Camp, Rotterdam

I went to Rotterdam betwwen Christmas and New Year for a big training camp. I went with my dad and some others from SKK Judo Club. The four day camp was very enjoyable but very hard and in total there wer 450 fighters on the camp. One of the sessions was taken by Olympic Medalist Mark Huizinger. I look forward to going again in 2010.

Club Presentation Night

At this years presentation night I won the Fighter of the Year trophy for the third year in a row. I won 15 Gold Medals, 8 Silver Medals, 5 Bronze Medals and won 109 fights. It was a really good year winning Silver Medals at both The Heart of England and the British Championships. I also got an award for getting on the England Judo Squad.

Derbyshire Young Achiever Awards

My year ended when I was presented with a Derbyshire Young Achiever award at an awards ceremony in Matlock. I received a nice award and £50 in shopping vouchers. This was a very nice supprise. I was pleased to get the award after a very hard year.

East Midlands Closed

I won all my three fights with Ippons to take the Gold Medal

British Championships, Sheffield

This was my first year in the Pre-Cadet age band and I needed a good result to get on the squad. I fought well again losing on flags in the final to Kieran Davin of Moberley Judo Club.

Harry Walkley (Bishop Challenor) First Fight
I beat Harry with a Yuko.

Daniel Laws (Newburn) Second Fight
I also beat daniel with a Yuko.

Tommy Ryan (Semi-Final)
My third fight went all the way and I won with another Yuko

Kieran Davin (Final)
For the third fight in a row with Kieran it went all the way to flags which I lost 3-0.

I was very happy winning another Silver Medal.

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/pdf/BritishChampionshipsResults09.pdf

There is a video of the event here:
http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/home/brit_champs2009updates.php

Warsaw Open, Poland

This was the second time I had competed in the Warsaw Open. I was fighting in the under 13's and under 15's. I like fighting in Poand. There were 800 fighters from 14 countries.

Under 15's (34kg) 8 competitors

We were split into two pools of four

Oleh Ovcharenko (Ukraine) First Fight
This strong lad from the Ukraine threw me for Ippon in ten seconds (ouch)

Johan Nordstrom (Sweden) Second Fight
I won my second fight with an Ippon easily

Marek Sedrowicz (Poland) Third Fight
I beat Marek with an ippon after about one minute.

Michal Kulik (Poland) Semi-Final
I had lost to Michal last year and was fighting really well. I was beaten by an armlock but still won the bronze medal.

Under 13's (33kg) 21 competitors

Kacper Krajewski (Poland) First Fight

I won my first fight very easily with an ippon

Oleh Ovcharenko (Ukraine) Second Fight

Oleh was a good strong fighter throwing me five time and again beating me. I lasted longer than my first fight against him. Oleh is the best fighter I have fought.

Mataz Gruzauskas (Lithuania) Third Fight

After my defeat I was really up for winning the Bronze Medal and threw Mataz with an ippon early in the fight.

Matas Kucinskas (Lithunia) Fourth Fight

I won this next fight even quicker than the last one with a wazari and a hold down.

Dmitrij Litjasov (Latvia) Fifth Fight

I won the Bronze Medal against this tough Latvian with two Wazaris

Results: http://www.wjo.org.pl/index.php?m=6&lg=en

North West Area Trials

This was a total waste of a day. The first four in the North West went through to the Nationals but there was only me and Kack Frazer (SKK) in the group. We had to fight and I beat Jack on flags.

Heart of England, Birmingham

This was my first competition in the 'B' band and it was the very difficult Heart of England. I was in a group of .. fighters. I needed to perform well in this and the Nationals to get a place on the English squad. It was going to be very hard as three of the existing squad were in my group.
Earl Starbrook (Hardy Spicer )First Fight
I won this fight quickly with a nice ko-uchi
Miles Nelson (New Star) Second Fight
This fight went the distance and I won with a wazari.

The draw worked out really good because the four semi-finalists were me, Jordan, Kieran and Tommy. They are all older than me and on the squad already

Tommy Ryan (Pinewood) Semi-Final
Tommy is a great fighter and we always have good fights. It was a hard fight but I managed to win by a wazari.
Jordan Haughey (Micklefield) Final
I was really please to get into the final and was fighting very well. The fight went into golden score and I got caught for a yuko. I was really pleased with my silver medal.

Ford Judo Club Training Camp

I went down to London with Rhiannon for a training camp at Ford Judo Club. I had a great time and did a lot of technical work and randori.

Belguim, Training Camp

I went to a training camp in Jodoigne, Belguim held by Cedric Taymans for five days 10.00 til 12.00 and 16.00 til 18.00. The training was done by the Swiss Olympic bronze medalist Sergei Aschwanden. The training was very hard and should have been good preparation for this years Heart of England and British Championships.

Lakeland Open, Kendal

I went up to Kendal for the Lakeland Open and fought in the 1994/95/96/97 age group at u34kg. I was in a small group of four.
Jack Murphy (Pro Judo) First Fight
My first fight was against jack Murphy. I have fought Jack a few times and he is a tough fighter. I threw him for ippon after about two minutes.
Calum McDonald (Sportif) Second Fight
My second fight was against a lad i had not met before. He was quite fast but I won with a wazari
Kieran Davin (Moberly) Third Fight
Kieran is a great fighter and our fight again went all the way to flags which Kieran won 3-0.

Junior US Open, USA

This week I fought in the Junior US Open in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There were fighters fron 21 different countries and over 600 competitors. I was in a group of 12 competitors and I was the second fight on in my weight group.
Brian Neeson (USA) First fight:
Brian wasn't up to much and I beat him within 10 seconds. Brian lost his second fight in 4 seconds.
Brian Abrue (USA) Second fight:
Brian is the number one in America. I tried my best to beat him and not to let him get the attacks in. I was fighting well and I was getting the attacks in first and controlling the fight. I put in two very good throws, one should have scored (Wazari or Ippon) but the referees didn't score it. Around the middle of the fight I went in for an appalling attempt at O-uchi gari and then Brian countered the poor attempt by pushing me on my back.
Kevin Synman (South Africa) Third fight:
I beat Kevin in a quick time.
Blake Calli (USA) Fourth fight:
Blake was the best fighter I fought all day and he beat Brian Abrue earlier in the year so I was looking out for him. The fight went on for the whole 3 minutes resulting in a very satisfying win with a yuko (5 points).
Anthony Codinach (USA) Fifth fight:
Anthony's coach was very cocky so I wanted to beat him real bad. Early on in the fight I scored with a good pick up from his lots of Drop Seo-Nagi's which he picked up some penalties with. I threw him for Wazari with a nice kata-guruma. The fight went the full 3 minutes and the result of a win for me and a Bronze Medal.

Link to results: http://judo.teamusa.org/news/article/14762

Press: http://www.glossop.com/judo_club.htm

Welsh Open Under 12's

I went to Colwyn Bay for this years North Wales Open. I was in the under 12's (u34). I won all five of my fights and won the Gold medal.

???????????? First fight
Won with Ippon
????????????? Second fight
Won with Ippon
?????????????? Third fight
Won with Ippon
Tommy Lewis (Gendros) (Semi-Final)
It was a tough fight which again went into golden score. I threw Tommy for ippon with Tomoe-Nage.
Connor Potts (Goole Judo Club) (Final)
I had never fought this lad from Goole before but he looks a good fighter. He was very fast but I threw him mith my sode after about a minute.

Link to results:
http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/pdf/North%20Wales%20Open%20RESULTS.pdf

Welsh Open Over 12's

In the Welsh Open I also competed in the over 12's section (u34's) as there was only Jack Frazer in it. I was in a pool of four with Tommy Lewis (Gendros), Harry Walkley (Bishop Challenor) and Jack Frazer (SKK). I was really pleased to win all my fights and had a good day winning all eight of my fights and winning two Gold medals.

Tommy Lewis (Gendros) First fight.

A hard fight which I won with a Yuko.

Harry Walkley (Bishop Challenor) Second fight

This was a really scrappy fight with Harry . I won the fight with a wazari and 2 yukos.

Jack Frazer (SKK) Third fight

Jack is hard to beat but I attacked a lot winning by a Wazari & a Yuko.

Link to results:

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/pdf/North%20Wales%20Open%20RESULTS.pdf

Western Area Over 12's, Swindon

I went to Swindon for the Western area for my first competition in the over 12's. I lost in the final to Kieran davin from Moberley Judo Club.

Tommy Lewis (First fight)

Tommy is a hard fighter and very good on the ground. There was no score until I threw him with O-uchi-gari in golden score.

Scott Topping (Second fight)

I have never met Scott before and beat him with a great sode after seven seconds.

Harry Walkley (Third fight)

Another hard fight that went into golden score which I won with a nice little pick-up.

Kieren Davin (Final)

Kieren is a really good fast fighter who had won the under 15's in Venray this year. I fought really well with the fight going the full five minutes. I lost on flags 3-0 but was happy with the way I fought.

Link to Results:

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/pdf/277-WestofEnglandOpen2009Results.pdf

Kent International, Kent

This year's kent International was one of the hardest comps I have done in Great Britain. There were some really good Dutch fighters as well as all the best British under 34's boys. I would have to fight really well to get a medal in this years competition.

Jack Murphy (First Fight)

As usual I started really slowly and struggled to beat Jack. Jack fought reallywell but I beat him with a yuko.

???????????(Second fight)

Still could not get into my judo and only won with a yuko.
Ben Schuurman (Third fight)

Ben is a very big strong Dutch fighter who had beaten me earlier in the year at the Dutch Espoir. I fought really well dominating ben with many good attacks winning with....................

Ziggy van der Brink (Fourth fight).

Ziggy is a very strong Dutch fighter who finished third in this years Dutch Espoir. Ziggy is very hard to fight and very fast. I thought I should have got a score early on but lost to a dodgy Yuko late on in the fight. I was very pleased with the way I fought. Ziggy later beat Liam Tarandij in the semi-final.

??????????(Fifth fight)

Won this fight with an ippon early on.

Ben Schuurman (Sixth fight)

I was up against Ben again next in the repecharge and had to fight well again to have a chance of winning a medal. I fought Ben the same way I did before and dominated with many attacks. I threw Ben for Ippon late on.

Liam Tarandij (Seventh Fight)

Liam is great fighter but i was fighting well. The fight went all the way with Liam scoring a Yuko with one of his pick-ups beating me for the bronze medal.. I was still really pleased with the fight.

Link to the results http://www.kentjudo.tk/

Graz International, Austria

This was my third year at Graz. I love coming here as the weather is really hot and the sports centre has a great big water park attached to it. I went with Rhiannon, Sam and Fay this year.

Link to Results: http://www.judo-creativ.at/it2009_results/_index.htm

Hasan Tambiev (Austria) First fight

Aleksandar Jovic (Serbia) Second Fight

Nicola Mortal (Italy) Semi-Final fight

Balaxs Acs (Hungary) Final

Venray International, The Netherlands

This year Venray was going to be the hardest comp I had done yet. I was in the under 15's (u34kg) and many of the best fighters around were competing this year. It was a tough step up to the under 15's.

Vano Niniashvili (Georgia) First Fight

First fight up was against a very small fast Georgian fighter. Vano was on the Georgian national team. I had never seen him fight aywhere before so did not know what to expect. He was very very fast and I was unhappy at losing to a dodgy yuko. Vano won all the rest of his fights to reach the final with big ippons so my fight wasn't that bad really.

Denis Berberat (Switzerland) Second fight

My second fight was an easy Ippon win against a Swiss fighter.

Jonathon Benyachou (Germany) Third fight

My third fight was against a strong German fighter. I fought really well winning with a wazari and then an Ippon.

Leopold Reinicke (Germany) Fourth fight

My fourth fight was against another very strong German fighter. Leopold had earlier thrown Owen Corzilius for Ippon so it was going to be my hardest fight yet. I fought really well and had found my best judo to beat him with an Ippon.

Mikhail Parfeev (Russia) Fifth fight

I was against a really fast Russian next but was fighting really well by now. I beat him easily with another big Ippon.

Owen Corzilius (Netherlands) Sixth fight

I had reached my mat final of the repecharge against Owen. I had never fought him before but he is one of the best Dutch fighters in this age group. I had to wait over two hours before we fought and could not find the judo from before. I lost by a yuko.

I was really pleased with the way I fought this year and finished seventh. Link to results:

http://www.judovenray.nl/Toernooi/Uitslagen/f.htm#f1

A J Judo Open, Welshpool

Parks Championships 2009

This was a great comp and I was allowed to enter both the under 12's and the over 12's, I won gold in the under 12's and silver in the over 12's but had to fight in the under 38's because there were no fighters in the under 34's.

BJC Nationals, Hereford

I travelled down to Hereford near Birmingham for the BJC Nationals just to have a few fights. The BJC competitions have different rules than the BJA so I thought I would try them even though they are rubbish. I was in the u35kg junior section and had 22 in my group. I won all five of my fights beating Tommy Lewis in the final to win the gold. I doubt if I will do another BJC event again.

Peterborough Under 20's

I went to Peterborough u20's and fought in the u12's section. I won all three of my fights and won the gold medal with a good win against Sam Blair (Pinewood). I also fought in the over 12's in a tough group with squad members Tommy Ryan Hooper (Pinewood) and Keiren Davin (Willesden).

Tommy Ryan Hooper (First Fight):

Tommy is a very good tough sqaud fighter and hard to beat but i pulled off a hari-goshi to win with an ippon (10 points).

Keiran Davin (Second Fight):

I've never fought Keiran before but as i have watched him i have seen he is a very good fighter, at the start of the fight Keiran put in a very good attempt at left Drop-seonage and he threw me for an ippon (10 points) within 10 seconds.

Ford Age Banded, Dagenham

After the Samurai u18's competition I fought at the Ford Age Banded in Dagenham. I had five fights but sadly lost to Morgan Redman with a decision that should have gone my way. I then won my next four fights to come away with a Bronze.