A rather smaller group than usual of the Pinewood Judo Club was fighting in Belgium again last Saturday, in Ingelmunster. The event was run by the Judo Club Kawaishi at the Gemeentelijke Sporthall in Bollewerpstraat.
As usual the tournament was very strong with a large attendance by top fighters from several Countries making it well worth the trip.
Pinewood judo Club’s coach Don Werner and some of the other members left the club at 2;30 am to drive the squad to the event, returning at 9:30 pm. Quite a long day for the younger fighters but they produced a good result of 2 gold,1 silver and 1 bronze medals.
In the pre. Cadet section William Von Mallinckrodt fighting at under 60 Kgs finished in fifth place after some excellent contests. Fighting well to match their result last week in Belgium at Izegem, Holly Eccles won gold at under 32 kgs and Kiera Bateman also won gold at under 40 kgs. Kymran Shergill who missed last weeks foreign trip through injury fought superbly to win the silver medalat under 52 Kgs.
In the cadet section Jade Eccles at under 52 kgs and Kieren McMahon at under 60 kgs both fought very well but failed to medal this time. Nicole Brown had a good day winning a bronze medal at under 70 kgs to round off a quite satisfactory day for the club.
On Sunday the Eccles family ventured on to Sint-Truiden for another tournament and Holly took gold at 32 kgs and bronze in the 36 kgs weight group. Her sister Jade won a bronze medal at under 52 kgs.
Also on Sunday Don Werner was in Sheffield with three of the youth squad at the English Open, they gained some excellent experience but they failed to medal. The Pinewood fighters most likely to score, Emma Pang at 48 kgs and Samson Omonua in the open weight group, could not attend. Both are suffering from quite irritating injuries that made fighting at the event impossible; but that is Judo for you.