Pinewood Judo Club had a small squad fighting at the Southend International Judo Championships last weekend. The event was well attended and had quite a lot of foreign Judoka in all of the sections.
On Saturday there were four Pinewood members fighting and they brought home a good clutch of medals. In the ladies youth section Emma Pang won gold at under 52 kgs and Jade Eccles also took gold at under 57 kgs.
They both fought in the senior ladies section and Emma took gold under 52 kgs and Jade won silver under 57 kgs. Declan Whyte did well to win a silver medal at under 38 kgs in the boys any grade section. Then Kim Tilley won gold at under 57 kgs in the veteran’s section.
On the Sunday the Pinewood squad’s performance was of mixed success. The under 12 group were not in their usual form. In the yellow belt and below section Tobias Chapman took bronze at under 27 kgs, Jay Bennett was in form and he won the under 30 kgs gold medal with some excellent judo. Daniel Franklin had a good day he won a silver medal in the under 38 kgs weight group and K-C Franklin won gold at under 25 kgs; she was fighting very well indeed. Noah Jones won bronze at under 27 kgs in the orange and above graded section.
Marcus Trafford was fighting well and he took gold at under 55 kgs in the any grade section for young men born in 1994-95-96-97 and 98. Mark Fricker raised the success rate with an excellent win, a silver medal at under 100 kgs in the veteran section.
Even with the rather slow score rate on Sunday the Pinewood squad still managed to bring home a total of 7 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals for the weekend.
Two Pinewood girls also fought in Flanders Belgium at the very strong International Lomel Championships.
They were both in superb form; they both won a gold medal. Kiera Bateman fought at under 48 kgs a new weight group for her and Crissie Webb won the over 63 kgs weight group. Both girls won with excellent Judo technique in the under 15 years section.