Well the summer is over and the Judo competitions are starting up again. IJC took four boys to the Eastern Area Red Belt Rumble for them to gain yet more competitive Judo experience. The club was represented by Oliver Footer, Stephan Cavangh-O’Niell, Ryan Baxter and Jack Nelson-Tunks Whilst some of the boys had competed before, this was Jacks first experience of competitive Judo. Whilst he learnt a lot, the best thing was to seem him leave the mat area with a big smile on his face, win, loose or draw. The boys all worked very hard and did the club, their parents and themselves very proud. There was no easy fights and no walk over’s. The boys dug deep and put into practice what they have been learning in the dojo, to which the results show. Well done to all the Judoka and keep up the hard work.

This years British National Judo Championships was held in Nottingham and Ipswich Judo Club, based out of Northgate Leisure Centre, sent three boys to the tournament. The Ipswich players that went were Tom Martin, Charlie Pearse & Max Unwin and all were supervised by the Ipswich judo Club senior coach Dave Martin (6th Dan Black Belt).

All the boys involved put in battling performances and were up against the best boys from across Great Britain.

Max Unwin found himself in -34kg group and as such was giving away 1 yr and moving up a weight category, which was always going to be tough. However he fought hard and pushed some of the older boys to their limits. He progressed throw the earlier rounds but unfortunately lost to the eventual bronze medallist. I'm sure he will have learnt from this experience and will be ready to fight for the medals next year.

Tom Martin, started slowly and narrowly lost his first match by a yuko score. He worked harder in his second match and won by Ippon score with a strong hold down called a PIN in Judo. A Wazari up in the bronze fight (this could easily have been an Ippon) from a rolling seoinage, but unfortunately he got countered by his opponent late in the match trying the same throw and had to settle for 5th place. Again he will learn from this experience and can also be proud of his performance.

Charlie Pearse was in the hardest group with over 20 talented boys. Charlie was in cracking form and progressed through to the semifinals with 3 good wins with strong Tachiwaza (standing techniques) and Newaza (ground techniques) skills. He lost to the eventual Gold medallist in his 4th match and it would have been easy to then have run out of steam. Not Charlie, he came out battling hard again in the Bronze fight totally frustrating his opponent who gave away 3 shidos (penalty scores) in the match. This gave Charlie a very well deserved Bronze medal.

For Dave Martin it was nice to be mat side to see all the boys from Ipswich Judo Club give their best as this was their first experience of competing at such a high level.

IJC was represented by two senior Judoka at this years EA low Kyu grade event. There were a total of only five players so instead of weight groups all the players had a round robin event. Stephen Baxter and Adrian Hawkins were the two willing volunteers and both of them did very well. Adrian has entered a few events in the past and so knew what to expect. For Stephen however, this was his first outing, but he over came his nerves and walked onto the mat. The experience gained by both players will stand them in good stead as they progress through the competitions onto more senior events.

Well done to both of you…