DJC @ The Kazoku Green Belt & Under Competition
Saturday the 2nd of February saw the first local competition of the year hosted by Kazoku Judo Club in Porthtowan.
After the snow, it was touch and go as to whether it would actually go ahead, however it did go ahead and it ended up being very well attended,
My first thought post competition is that Eva will have to find a bigger venue for this competition if it remains in the same format next year as attendance was high and it quickly became clear that there was not enough room for all the players and spectators as so many clubs had sent entrants.
It was good to see players and officials from.
West Penwith
Redruth Judo Club
One and All Judo Club
Truro Prep
St Ives
Plymouth Judo Club
Hoshi Judo Club
Penrose Judo Club
Kazoku Judo Club
Drake and Brent
On the day itself due to injuries and being snowed in we had 20 players representing DJC and a further 3 from South Brent.
First up and in the same group were Cafan and Joe, both of whom haven't much experience in competition, however both fought out of their skin. Some great movement from Joe, he also adjusted his attacks after being advised(an important skill) and both won all of their contests against the other players with Cafan producing a huge O-Goshi for arguably the throw of the day. Fighting each other, Joe was a Wazari up before Cafan threw for Ippon, giving us a Gold and Silver from our first group
Next up was Nate who was making his comeback to competition after 6 months out due to a knee injury. There were some pre fight nerves which was to be expected but Nate put in his usual clinical performance beating the same player twice in a row to take his first gold of 2019
We then had Tia who was making her debut in competition for DJC in a best of three against an orange belt, Tia gave a great account of herself and raised her intensity levels to new heights and gave the girl a run for her money on both occassions, Silver for Tia
Isabelle has entered quite a few competitions over the last year, she is a very shy and quiet girl and i struggle to get more than two words out of her, she has been working on an ippon seoi nage which i have been begging her to use in competition, however she has stuck to her guns and kept using a ko-soto gari which she is now getting some success with, her Ne-waza too has improved much and i was over the moon to see her win all her contests and take a well deserved first gold medal.
We then had a debutant! Fran has been involved with Judo in one way or another since she was 4 and she put in a very good performance despite being in a group which was perhaps a little more experienced than i would have liked... Fran will no doubt fight in the Birthday Bash and I'm looking forward to see her develop, Fran took a well deserved Bronze
Angus then jumped into the action! quite literally! as her took his unique swashbuckling judo style into his contests, a big O-Soto-Gari gave him victory in his first contest and he put in 100% effort for his other contests, he came away with a very good Silver medal
Next up in a group of three we had Pheebs and Niamh both of whom made quick work of the other girl in the group, which left them to fight off for the gold which Phoebe dually won to give us another one two, Niamh again show that she has made leaps and bounds in terms of ability and i can see her doing very well over the next 12 months, Pheebs maintains her position as one of the top girls in the country for her age and weight.
In the final U12 section we had Will who won his first two contests and ended up in the final with a boy he has lost to and beaten in previous contests, not quite the result he was hoping for but Will is developing more and more and his array of techniques is changing, this is a case of one step back two steps forward, Silver for 'The Original'
We then moved onto the U16 section of the competition, there were a couple of issues within this section with certain players and weights.
First up in a huge group of 7 we had Lottie, Ellie and Paige,
Paige has literally only just turned 12 and was unfortunately in a group where she had to fight up two weight groups against girls who were a lot more expereinced, she gave a wonderful account of herself taking Gold obviously in her own category but this was a frustrating part of the day
Lottie who had been a little unwell during the week, put in a very solid performance beating all the other girls with relative ease, her contest with DeeDee was a good old fashioned fight, towards the end of the competition obviously being under the weather started to affect her a little but she put in a gutsy effort and took a well earned Silver
Ellie is in a rich vein of form at the moment and her Judo is a pleasure to watch, all the girls were dispatched within 30 seconds or so and she took gold at a canter, If she can keep up her high level of training and good attitude who knows where she will end up this year?
JJ had a strange day as by error she ended up in the heavyweight girls group, she herself would be a light heavyweight so at some point she looked like she was attempting to chop down trees, this didn't hold her back and against all green belts she was quite dominant in all the contests only losing due to a lack of size, she finished the day beating the biggest girl in the group who was over 70kgs! Gold in her own category
We were very happy to see that Charlie Warwick had an opponent as he is 12 but very light (U34kgs) he had a best of 3 against a higher graded boy but finished both contests in straight forward fashion and took his first Gold of the year
Jake then stepped up, but sadly for him there were no other U42kgs boys which meant fighting up in the U46/U50 group which meant he was by far the smallest in the group, however he gave his usual dynamic performances going out all guns blazing, Gold in his own group.
The heavyweight boys consisted of Ollie Zab 14 Red Belt and Reuben 12 green belt, watching the two of them go for it was like watching two rival stags! Ollie Just edged both contests and we look forward to what he can do at the Kent Internationals later in the year, Reuben put up a tremendous scrap against someone obviously older and took a well earned silver medal.
Finally then to 'The Phoenix' Bogdan, who after a disappointing 2018 has refocused and made some lifestyle changes which has seen him come down a weight group, his attitude to training has also changed and this showed more than ever, winning all of his contests with relative ease, he and Maddox had a cracking encounter which swayed this way and that with Bogdan just coming out on top.
Sadly Callum had no-one to fight at U81 in the junior section so joined in with the seniors, i think sometimes because of the fact he's 6ft 2 and very intelligent and a very good orator that people forget he is still only 15 a relative baby in Judo terms but he took on the men with a lot of conviction and did very well taking a bronze medal
Also mentions to the South Brent Judoka who took part, it was wonderful to see Martha whom we have known for quite a few years now, sadly Martha sustained an injury to her back but took a silver,
Delphine(DeeDee) upped her intensity levels and put together some good combinations on her way to taking a very well earned bronze and finally Maddox who won all of his fights in a straightforward fashion and had as mentioned a great contest with Bogdan and took Silver.
A big thanks to all the parents who braved the elements to be there and to Kate who assisted me matside all day
Final Tally
11 Gold
7 Silver
2 Bronze
Ross