DJC @ The Kazoku Cup
Sunday the 7th of October saw DJC take some 30 players to Newquay for the Kazoku Cup.
This competition represented one of our biggest entries of the year due to the location being only an hours drive away.
DJC attended the tournament last year and taken the trophy for best performing club, something we were keen to achieve for a second year in a row.
A slight difference from last year was that five of our Gen1 players would not be able to attend due to England training being held at Bath University, Andy H and Ros were dispatched with our small group to have a day of solid technical Judo and strength and conditioning,
This meant that a lot of our Gen2 and even 3 and 4 were stepping up to compete, we also had a couple of debutants too. Our seniors were came out in force having had a some solid training with Charles and Dan over the last few weeks.
In the coaching chairs Ross and Kate were providing the encouragement
With over 100 contests participated by DJC Judoka I'm sure you can understand that we cant report on every single one but have reported some high lights below.
First up were our Minors, led by William Kidd who won Gold in his group winning 4 out of 4, we had debutants Ronnie and Isaac who both put on a tremendous display to come away with medals. Erin and Phoebe maintained there positions as being the top girls in their respective weights in the area with Gold medals for both
Joe P on only his 2nd competitive performance came away with a gold in front of his Nan and Grandad, Joe W (who is in arguably one of the most competitive weight groups in the area) displayed his signature 'strut' and took gold winning his 4 fights with 4 ippons. Niamh and Isabelle W both put up great performances taking silver each, Isabelle especially came so close to beating an Orange belt in a best of 3, scoring Ippon in the first contest and only losing the next 2 by a whisker. Finally the peoples champ, George was involved in tough battles as usual, brining home a bronze medal.
Medals were handed out to the minors and trophies to the gold medal places, credit to organiser Eva who manged to get a sponsor for the trophies which were very well received
Next up were our pre-cadets, as previously mentioned we were missing 5 players due to England training (Also Maria and Ellie were not present) First off Jake won his contest with his U42kg opponent in record time to take gold and then entered the U46kg section where some of the boys out weighed him by 8 kilos, 20% of his body weight! he fought very well only falling short by a whisker but took gold in his weight group none the less. Tavi School recruit, Naomi had a similar situation having to fight up a weight group where she took on much higher graded players and came away with a gold for her own weight in her first competition.
JJ was in only her second competition having taken up Judo in April, she had a best of 3 with TJ from Kazoku JC and won the first 2 contests by Ippon and drew the 3rd to take a well deserved gold
medal. Charlie W had a great series of contests with a lad from Cornwall and came away with a Silver medal, Charlie must be one of our most rapidly improving Judoka due to his dedication to training(he's at them all!) Paige continued her good form and took a Silver with her debut at Pre-Cadet.
Last up was Allan who again due to football doesn't get to train as much as he would like but none the less is a wonderful player to watch, fast and powerful(just like his Dad) came away with a silver when it looked like it might be gold for a while.
After this came the cadets, there wasn't a massive entry from other clubs in this age bracket but it still produced some wonderful contests. First up was Liam who was making his debut at competition and in his opening contest produced an amazing throw to take a clean ippon, Liam has come through our satellite class at Sir John Hunt School and took a gold medal on the day. Callum took gold at Cadet level too but would have his most interesting contests up in the seniors. Up next was Club Captain Jack Murphy who has recently been promoted to Junior Brown Belt, he won his first 2 contests very easily with a huge throws, then he met his friend and nemesis Taryn from Kazoku JC whom it has to be said is a wonderful player with beautiful Judo, I'm sure Jack wont mind me saying he hasn't beaten Taryn for a number of years and but with them both being Brown Belts it proved to be one of the contests of the day with excellent Judo, Jack pulled off the win with a wonderful Sode-Tsuri-Komi-Goshi (google it if you don't know) and took gold(had he been a senior Brown Belt this would have given him some Dan grade points)
This represented the end of the day for our juniors who had all done DJC very proud with some wonderful Judo and fantastic spirit.
Next up were our Seniors, Senior Judo has been steadily developing at DJC, when the club was first founded we didn't even offer a senior session, in the two years since we now have two thriving senior sessions which include Dan grades, Weekend Warrior Dads & Mums and Large Juniors who are transitioning.
Callum was thrown into the deep end fighting at Senior Level for the first time, at 6ft 2 Callum certainly has the height of a senior but at his age he has not developed his adult physique or strength but is getting better week to week. he had his first solid victory over a senior player from Plymouth Judo Club using his very strong sutemi waza, he took a bronze on the day, having fought a couple of black belts too.
Dom had a hot and cold day, he is a handful for any grade in competition, his development is now such that he has developed into thinking mans Judo which can sometimes feel like you have taken a step back when in fact you have taken a step forward. Some solid performances gave him a bronze medal.
Jess had a great day result wise taking gold including beating a brown belt but suffered a back injury in the process, still this didn't get her down and with Phoebe taking gold too it was a double celebration in their house. Lauren fought hard and took a bronze medal in a group with lots of higher grades, Simon had a great day fighting much higher grades and taking a bronze at his first competition, Dan found himself in contests with nationally ranked black belts but still went in with his usual swashbuckling style, a 5th place in the most stacked group of the day represented a good performance. Derek had the most competitors in a Heavyweight men's group for a long time, 5! he fought very well and lost a tight match against Ben from Flo Judo Club to take a Silver.
Finally we had Matt Helm who took gold in pretty straightforward fashion although his first fight was against a Black Belt(Matt is Green) and a victory in competition against a 1st Dan is always memorable.
After all the medals had been given out, DJC was presented with the Trophy for 1st placed club(The Kazoku Cup!)
Also DJC's junior referee Keiron Murphy completed his 2nd competition as he works towards his Area Referee award