Pinewood fighters were on the road last weekend in Britain and Europe.
On Saturday a small group of Cadets travelled overnight to compete in the Inglemunster Open Championship in Belgium. A busy and sucessful day saw Kiera Bateman take a well
deserved Gold medal in the U48 Cadets. Holly Eccles having been awarded a Gold at U44 accepted
the invitation to compete in the next weight group up at 48. Despite her weight disadvantage she
managed to gain an impessive Bronze.
A small mistake in the semi final saw Jade Eccles competing for a Bronze medal and losing out after a hard fought
contest against fellow clubmate Olivia Spellman who took the Bronze.
William Mallinkrodt produced his usual display of stylish judo but suffered aa a consequence of some
unusual refereeing decisions leaving him competing for Bronze and then ultimately left empty handed.
Keen to grab as much experience as possible Kiera Olivia and Jade all entered the u21 section where they
all fought hard and well with Kiera Bateman managing to add a Bronze to her tally.
Forsaking the attractions of a Saturday night stay over in Belgium, Kiera Bateman, Olivia Spellman and their
parents left and headed to Sheffield where they competed in the English Open Tournament. on Sunday.
Kiera Bateman took out the number two ranked competitor in her Cadet U48 kg weight category on her way to a bronze medal, only losing the semi final to the competitor ranked nationally at number one.
Olivia Spellman fought her way to a respectable 5th place in the U57 Cadets after which both she and Kiera
decided to throw themselves in for one last effort in the Senior section with Kiera pulling off an incredible Silver medal.
This was a true giant killing effort on her part as a 15 year old Blue belt she beat a 24 year old Black belt amongst others.
Megan Fletcher a Pinewood fighter now training full time at Bath University was juggling her responsibilities as stand in for coach Mark Fricker on Sunday as she fought her way to a Bronze medal herself in the U70 Senior section.
The last but not least mention must go to Declan Whyte and Wade Muttit who attended the British Schools National Championship on Sunday. Declan taking a well deseved Gold medal at U38 and Wade a silver at u30.
Coach Fricker was proud of the fighting spirit as well as the technical level of the judo produced by Pinewood this weekend and feels it bodes well for the future.