2 weeks ago I competed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the under 66kg category. After receiving a buy in the 1st round my first contest was against a Scottish fighter who has made it hard work for me in the past, this time I managed to put him away comfortably. My 2nd contest was against another Scot and good player Joe McCole, Joe pushed me to extra time but then I picked up the pace and ended the contest. The final was against a player from Wales who is very strong but again it went my way and I claimed the gold medal. Next competitions are European Junior cup in Lithuania the School Games in London.

I recently went to Lithuania with a group of players from the Midlands area. It was a Junior European cup, so a tough competition for me. My first fight was a Lithuanian top seed, who I had previously lost to, I beat him quite comfortably this time. Unfortunately my next fight which went on to golden score and then a decision on flags, I lost 2 flags to 1. Because this player did not win his next fight I was not brought back into the repecharge.

The same day I flew back from Lithuania I headed straight for the School games which was being held this year at the new Olympic venues in London. The games normally see’s England, Wales Scotland and Northern Ireland compete against each other in several different sports. This year however, a team from Brazil had been invited to attend and compete in some of the sports, judo being one of them. After loosing to the Brazilian in the 2nd round, I won my next 2 fights to bring me through to the final against the Brazilian again! This time it went all the way to the last 20 seconds of golden score before one of the referees gave a dubious score to the Brazilian and I had to settle for silver.