Today I competed in the “Heart of England” competition, this is one of the main events on the BJA calender and is a ranking event. In total I had 4 fights and won the Gold medal. My longest fight lasted just over 1 minute, although things could easily have gone completely wrong! just a few seconds into my first fight of the day I threw my opponent and went into ground work, I quickly turned him onto his back and applied an armlock. The referee stopped the fight and indicated that he was going to disqualify me for applying the armlock, fortunately for me my coach Bill Kelly was on hand to point out to the ref that in my age group armlocks were allowed. Point made the referee restarted the fight and within 10 seconds I threw my opponent and went into ground work, applied the armlock and won the fight for the second time and there were still 3minutes and 5seconds left on the clock. This set the scene for the day and most of my fights followed a similar pattern.

I earnt another 10 points towards my 1st Dan at the comp. I now have 90 points and just need another 10 to gain my black belt. Well back to training now and I’ve just got to wait to see what happens now competition wise.

This weekend is the Midland Area Trials. The top 4 from each category will earn the right to enter British Championships held in Sheffield during October. Needless to say it is a very important competition for me and one where I must perform well so I can keep my position on Britsh Squad. Hopefully I will be able to share some good news with you next week.

Sunday was the Midland Area trials held at Wolverhampton University Campus in Walsall. The top 4 in each category qualify to enter the National Championships in October at the Institute for Sport in Sheffield. This is important to me for my progression and to keep my place on the GBR junior squad. On the day my category was one of the larger categories and I had 4 fights, it should have been 5 fights but unfortunately one player had to withdraw from the competition with a suspected broken leg. I managed to win all my fights by Ippon, the first by throwing my opponent, the next two by arm locking them and my final fight by applying the strangle. For me this was a good event and three of my opponents I have never seen or fought before. Thankfully this means I will be fighting in Sheffield during October.

I would like to take this opportunity to say well done and congratulations to one of my fellow club mates, Freya DeChasterlain. Freya fought at the Junior Europeans on Friday and won the Bronze medal. She was fighting older girls with more experience and yet Freya was not intimidated and fought fantastically well. So once again well done Freya.

This weekend I am off to another training camp. This time it is quite local in Birmingham at the NIA. This will be my last opportunity to train with the Squad before I travel to Sheffield for the Nationals. I haven’t had the best build up to this event due to an injury to my foot. Last week whilst training I was fighting a heavier opponent and when we got too close to the edge of the training mat I relaxed my grip to move back to a safe distance, unfortunately my training partner turned in for an attack and threw me off the mat onto the unprotected flooring.

Consequently my foot took the full force of the impact and by the following morning it had swollen to twice its normal size. So after a visit to hospital I was told to rest for at least two weeks. So not the best preparation to say the least. On the bright side I was back in training yesterday a full week ahead of schedule. My foots still sore but needs must and I need my fitness for Sheffield. Hopefully I’ll still be ok after the training camp and by then ready for the main competition. I’ll try and update before travelling to Sheffield.