Asda Athletes

First competition for a while, I fought at the British Championships in Sheffield in October in the under 60kgs category, which I attend to compete in next year at European level. Great to say I’m British Champion again. Had to fight only 6 days later at the Scottish Open in Glasgow unfortunately a silly mistake cost me the gold medal but did get a bronze. I also won Junior Sports Personality for Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire at last! after previously being nominated 4 times. Have now got some serious training to do before the British Trials in January 2013, will keep you updated

A little bit quiet on the competition front at the moment.

I last competed in the National teams competition in July at Sheffield. I was the under 66kgs competitor for the Midlands team.

I won all my fights, unfortunately however our team ended up with the silver medal.

Things should get underway again for me in September when domestic competitions commence for the new season.

Congratulations to the British judo players that won medals at London 2012 and good luck to the Para Olympic players.

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.

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 have competed in a couple of national point scoring competitions since I last updated my blog.

Since moving up to the under 66kg category late last year and coming back from injury, I haven’t, unfortunately achieved the goals I wanted to so far. I did however get bronze medals in both the Midlands under 20 competition in Feb and the English junior open this month (in junior and senior events).

I am now concentrating on the Northern Ireland open in April and finishing my college diploma course in sport, which once completed will enable me to start university in September. I will keep you informed of future news.