Gold Club Mark / Worthing Orange Belt and Under

Over the Christmas break the Pinewood Judo Club had some incredible news. They had been awarded the Club Mark Gold Award, the only time a club has won bronze, silver and gold in such a short time.

Last Sunday the Pinewood Judo Club fought their first tournament of 2008 at the Worthing Leisure Centre. The event was for juniors of novice to top orange belt grade, divided into under 12 years and 12 to under 16 year groups.

It was a good event to start the year with but unfortunately the attendance was rather poor. With the division of ages this situation is becoming all too familiar of late.

The Pinewood members brought home 11 gold, 12 silver and 9 bronze medals, so they had quite a good day’s judo.

In the under 12s section the boys started the score with at under 25 kgs Christian Tepper won gold and Sam Cowdrey took the bronze. Under 27 kgs Sam Blair won gold and at under 30 kgs Marcus Trafford won gold with Tommy Ryan Hooper taking the silver medal.

Two silver medals came from George Lawes under 34 kgs and Harrison John under 38 kgs then Stuart Gainsford rounded off the boy’s group with bronze at under 46 kgs.                  

For the girls at under 25 kgs Holly Eccles won silver and Libby Gainsford bronze. The next two weights were all Pinewood fighters; this is where British judo is suffering most from the new rules. Unfortunately this is where the future judoka are supposed to be coming from.

Under 28 kgs Emma Pang won gold, Jenny Roberts silver and Yolande Andrews bronze. Under 32 kgs Emily Harper won gold, Leah Blair silver and Jade Eccles bronze.

There were more entered in the next weights so the contests were a bit more exciting. Under 36 kgs Phoebe Augier won gold, Anastasia Andrews silver and Rebekah Brown took bronze. Hannah Moore had little trouble winning gold at under 40 kgs, then at under 44 kgs Sophie Tepper and Nicole Brown both won bronze medals.

The under 16 section was more exciting because the old rules were in use. At under 38 kgs Ben Roberts won gold and George Wyke the silver. In the under 42 kgs weight group Ben Jones won silver and in the next two weights it was all Pinewood finals. Under 50 kgs James Derlacki won gold and Elliot Trainor silver then at under 73 kgs Marcus Webster won gold and Bradley Pimley silver.

There were only three Pinewood girls in this section and Rebecca Arkell won bronze at under 40 kgs. Dominique Brown fought very well to win gold at under 50 kgs and Jasmine Crean took the silver in another all Pinewood final.

Pinewood Judo Club with quite a few others of the stronger British clubs will not be fighting in the Welsh Open next week, due to an over sized entry they have had their entries returned.

Pinewood coach Don Werner will not be getting a day off though because, all being well, he will be with Ben Fletcher and Sarah Pang. They are fighting in the E.J.U. International Cadets tournament in the Ukraine at Kiev. Hopefully there will be satisfactory news of the tournament next weekend.