DJC @ The Welsh Senior and Junior Championships

Sunday the 20th of October saw DJC take a small team to the Welsh Senior and Junior Championships in Cardiff,

The Championships are a National ranking event, meaning points are awarded for one's performance in the competition which are then put towards your position within a league table.

With that in mind, you can imagine that this competition attracts a lot of the top British players and you will also see many European players. It is seen as a perfect preparation event for the British Championships in December.

So how did the players do?

Juniors:

Cerys Callard:

Cerys has a really marauding style of Judo, which at her diminutive stature makes always for a fantastic visual sceptical, Fighting in the Under 48's she made sure that her opponents danced to her rhythm and in her fight for Gold, she secured an Ippon win and becomes Junior Champion of Wales plus more points towards Black Belt!

Result: Gold and Welsh Junior Champion

Max Gregory:

Watching Max from a coaching chair is actually a very pleasurable thing to do, he is currently ranked number 1 in the Juniors and is the current British Champion. His first 4 fights were very straight forward which put him into the final, which sadly, in my opinion, was blighted by an incorrect refereeing decision. He lost the contest on Shido's having been penalized for stepping out the area when he clearly had one foot still inside. We appealed but it fell on deaf ears, so a fantastic performance ended on a note of frustration

Result: Silver

Cordelia Gregory:

Cordelia is a cadet but her performances and previous success means that she is already competing in the Junior section. Her first fight was a bruising encounter where she took a punch which left her with a slightly swollen cheek, still, it didn't upset her rhythm and she wrapped up the victory with a throw for Ippon. She then went about her business as usual, finishing by throwing for Ippon in the final

Result: Gold and Welsh Junior Champion(more second Dan points)

Adam Vosper:

Adam is another player who is a pleasure to watch he really is the all around Judoka and was making his debut as a Junior having had success at Minor, Pre-Cadet and Cadet. He was a little nervous but went out with his usual confidence. In a very very large group, his first contest was a little dramatic as Adam applied a shime waza and his opponent lost consciousness (he was fine) this was then followed by Adam being ill at Matside due to what would seem to be food poisoning from the night before. It was now touch and go whether he would continue, after monitoring it, he decided he would fight on and after just missing out in his second contest, won the next 4 in a row to take bronze!

Result: Bronze(and more 2nd Dan points)

Seniors:

Max Gregory:

Max knows how to put the frustration of the juniors behind him and look to re-focus for the seniors, it contained all of the players from the juniors plus many more pure seniors. His first fight resulted in a massive Koshi Waza which had me feeling sorry for his opponent, he then took on a really really tough Moldovan fighter who I could hear many of the other players in the group were tipping to win. He was huge and I was shocked that he was even U100kgs. Max produced a solid professional performance and utilised his superior Ne-Waza skills to secure the victory for Ippon. He then had two largely uneventful contests which put him into the final against the same player with whom he had lost to on Shidos earlier in the day.

This time he made no mistake producing 2 massive throws to secure a Wazari followed by a full Ippon to become Welsh Senior Champion

Result: Gold and Welsh Senior Champion

Cordelia Gregory:

Again, despite being only a cadet, Cordelia had already stepped up to Junior and been victorious and so a step up to the senior category was really a opportunity to see how she would fair, well fair she did, with a victory in her first contest with an armlock. Her second with a hold-down her third then with 2 Wazari throws, which put her into the final, this proved to be a very brief affair as she threw her opponent for Ippon in the first 20 seconds.

Again, despite being only a cadet, Cordelia had already stepped up to Junior and been victorious and so a step up to the senior category was really a opportunity to see how she would fair, well fair she did, with a victory in her first contest with an armlock. Her second with a hold-down her third then with 2 Wazari throws, which put her into the final. This proved to be a very brief affair as she threw her opponent for Ippon in the first 20 seconds

Result: Gold and Welsh Senior Champion (more 2nd Dan points)

Usually Gary would be mat-side coaching at this level but due to him being in Japan(we wont feel too sorry for him) i had the pleasure of well mainly encouraging and enjoying the Judo

A mention for the Cornish, who were in force and as ever fought there hearts out with Tasha picking up a Bronze and Tom and Trystan both putting in solid performances.

Also a mention to Shepton and Dianne, whom we have a close relationship with had some fantastic performances with Matt Hucker taking the Senior U81 title.