Drake @ the Devon County Championships
We are off! 2018 is here and that means Drake Judo club are officially back on the competition circuit, this time at our own county championships, last year we managed to produce 4 county champions out of a total entry of 12 players...
This year we had an increased entry of 40 players across both junior and senior's from under 25kgs to over 100kgs and all points in between
With so many players(over half the total entry of the competition) Mike and Ross were both stationed on a mat each for the whole day with Charles running as the floater in between, Roz was at the competition in a Devon capacity but was still able to hand out advice to players.
We were sadly suffering from illness with Lucy Knape unable to make it on the day and Maria, Will and Phoebe all suffering on the day.
Our smallest competitor of the day was Georgina Jenkinson (George) who has recently joined Drake, she weighed in at a whopping 25kgs and was the only competitior in this weight class and so was moved up to contest the 28kg class. George took home a gold medal and has been selected to represent Devon in the U28kg group!
The U32 girls group was probably the most competitive group of the day with a total of 8 entries including 3 from Drake, Erin who was fighting in a new weight, was unlucky to find herself in a loaded group but put up her usual spirited performance. Also in this category we had Sarah Walker making her debut at competition, Sarah has only been doing Judo for a few months and has showed amazing tenacity, she fought like a tiger and gave 100% we will look forward to seeing more of Sarah in the future. Niamh in her first competition did very well to come away with a bronze medal against a lot of experienced players and Phoebe who was very unwell managed to beat everyone and take home a gold medal in arguably her best result to date
at U36 georgia had a tough bunch to contend with but managed to win a silver meal and as usual was happy and smiley thoroughout!
at U40 Lottie coasted to her first county title, winning all her contests in under minute, being very professional. Mia battled hard and won her opening contest to take a well earned bronze, Daisy as usual gave lots of people problems and took home a silver and in her competitive debut, Isabelle fought like a tiger to take bronze
Following on Skyla who has improved massively lately becomes Devon Champion by winning gold at U48 and Alanna who was also dealing with illness also took home gold in the U52's
The Boys were also keen to get in on the action and did so starting with the U27kgs and Adiel took home his first county title followed by Joe Walker making his competition debut fought really well to earn himself a silver.
next up came the U34kgs which starred Will who looked like a zombie(he has had flu and has not really eaten much and suffered) he took a bronze medal, Nate in only his 2nd competition took a respectable Silver to a player 7 grades higher than him, making his debut at competition after turning 8 only a week ago, Oliver Northmore fought really well and did all of us proud.
At U38 we had the always positive Angus Black who is still finding his feet in Judo, took home a well deserved bronze, Oscar Oram-Perez who has seem vast improvement lately won a couple of contests to take home a bronze and finally Jake Brown won all of his contests to become Devon Champion for the 2nd year running
We then had Oliver Humphries who was much improved today, showing a very professional performance and taking home a gold in the U46 category this was then rounded off by Reuben who took a fantastic silver winning all his contests except for one and finally Bogdan won his 3rd county title in a row
We then stopped for a quick coffee break and marched straight on with the over 12 sections, in the girls U46kgs Maria who was suffering really badly with Flu managed to win her first contest with a hold down and a massive throw won her 2nd contest. She finished the day taking home gold in her debut Pre-cadet competition
Izzy Humphries had some hard contests but also became Devon champion taking home Gold
We had two entires in the boys O12 with Leo producing the throw of the day to become Devon champion and Captain Jack Murphy became Devon Champion for the SIXTH year in a row!
Next came the Friday night B team as Dan described himself and his motley crew, Dan & Dom took each other on as did Rob and Derek giving the unique situation that both mats were filled with Drake players(it happened a couple of times earlier in the day with the juniors) Dan and Dom had 3 close fights with Dan taking the honours and his first county title, Dom getting his deserved silver
Rob and Derek had two closely fought contests not giving an inch and Derek took his first county title and Rob took home a silver medal on his debut for Drake Judo Club
Finally Kate had a really really enjoyable battle with Cerys Callard from South Brent, Kate lost the first contest by armlock and then ground out a wizard win the 2nd winning the 3rd by her own armlock and taking her 2nd consecutive Devon title
In all we took 16 Gold medals and County Titles
7 Silver Medals
7 bronze medals
so 30 medals in total!
Would also like to mention that Dan and Andy H also completed their TK time and are now fully qualified by the BJA.
A great start to the year for Team Drake!!!
