Bristol Classic

Pinewood Judo Club fought in the Bristol Classic Tournament last weekend, on the Saturday. It was quite a strong event with a fair entry in most of the weight groups. Two sections were in action, the 8 to under 12 and 12 to under 16 year old boys and girls.

The Pinewood under 12 years group had quite a good trophy score. In the under 30 kgs weight group it was an all Pinewood final, Christian Tepper won gold and Daniel King the silver.

Aidan Longstaff won a bronze at under 34 kgs while at under 42 Kgs Harrison John won silver and Myles Trainor the bronze trophy. William Von Mallinckrodt rounded off the boys section with the silver at under 46 kgs. There were no Pinewood boys in the weights above; the club has few children in the heavier weights in this section.

The girls did well because all five entered reached the final of their weight group. Holly Eccles was first off the mark and she won gold at under 28 kgs and Kiera Bateman won silver at under 32 kgs.

In the under 36 kgs weight group it was another double final for Pinewood with Jenny Roberts winning gold and Eva Thomas silver. Kymran Shergill rounded off the girls score with a gold trophy at under 40 kgs. As with the boys, the club is short on young heavy weights so Kymran was the last one to fight in this section.

The Pinewood under 16 years boys section has been badly affected by injury of late so the squad was rather small, only contesting two weight groups.

In the very strong under 38 kgs weight George Lawes fought superbly to win the gold trophy and Tommy Ryan also produced a great performance to win the bronze trophy. Sam Blair and Sam Cowdrey also fought in this weight and they did very well indeed. Their normal weight group was left out by the organisers, so they were giving away quite a lot in strength and weight.

At under 50 kgs Ben Roberts was the only other Pinewood boy fighting. He was rather hindered by a damaged knee, but he fought hard and produced a well deserved bronze trophy.

The girls were in good form, at under 40 kgs Emma Pang won gold with some excellent Judo; she is a most experienced fighter with a hat trick of National titles to her name. Olivia Spellman is going from strength to strength and she won the bronze behind Emma.

The under 44 kgs weight was strongly supported so Leah Blair and Rebekah Brown both did well to take the bronze trophies.