A busy couple of weekends has seen Pinewood fighters scattered far and wide in their hunt for competition experience and of course medals!
On Saturday 17th January with a snowy Edinburgh backdrop cadets Kiera Bateman
at U48kg and Olivia Spellman at U63kg were competing in the junior (Under 21) and senior (Over 21) sections of The Scottish Open Tournament.
The aim was for them to gather experience as they are both still cadets, however they had other ideas, with strong performances from both, that saw each of take Bronze medals in the U21 section followed by a fantastic Bronze for Olivia in the Seniors and Gold by default for Kiera in her Senior group as the other competitors withdrew!
Last weekend on Saturday 24th January a number of Pinewood competitors attended a competition held at High Wycombe. This was an event used as a qualifier for the forthcoming National Schools Competition and consequently they were all keen to gather the necessary qualification points. It was a well attended event as a consequence of this status and the standard was high.the Pinewood results were as follows.
Golds to:
- Tobias Chapman
- Oliver Young
- Dan Franklin
- Charlie Howell
Silver:
- Ettienne Keeler
Bronze:
- Ruben Lord
On Sunday 25th January an expeditionary force ventured to the South Coast for The Worthing Orange Belt and Under Open.
Again the standard was high with plenty of national ranked competitors in attendance.
Noah Jones at his new weight of U34 was on great form losing only one close fought battle to take a Silver.
Phoebe Deacon U40 despite a couple of slips managed a creditable Bronze in a group where she was dwarfed by some of her opposition.
Ettienne Keeler at U55 took Gold in his second back to back competition last weekend.
He put in a fantastic day of judo, and his capability of producing a big throw when he needs, it coupled with his intelligent tactical approach make him a great prospect for the future.
Caitlyn Clark at U57 also looked distinctly undersized in her group but did not let
this slow her down as she stormed through her opposition to take a well deserved Gold. Coach Mark Fricker considered this to her best performance in competition to date and is pleased to see her hard work and dedication paying her back.
Oliver Young at U38 was surrounded by quality opposition one mistake in his first fight against a relative unknown saw him battling for, and eventually taking a Bronze medal.
After his first fight he put in a great performance never putting a foot wrong, Judo is an unforgiving business.
Terri Gough at U48 was untroubled by her group in the under 12 section taking a Gold medal and so she decided to enter the U16 section as well.
She fought the older girls with her usual ferocity and took a Silver to add to her collection.
Lottie Stickland at U28 has turned herself into a regular medal prospect and again she put in a reliably good performance with one mistake
leaving her with a Silver.
Bella Holeman who is developing a great maturity about her judo took Silver in the U36 group.
These events are a critical part of the young judoka’s improvement and beyond the medal count some very useful experience was gained by all of the competitors (and parents) who gave up their time in pursuit of their judo dream.
UKCC Level 2 Coach BJA Reg. 4th Dan