Great Start to 2013

On Sunday 3 February Connor Tait, Ethan Ward, Brandon Allsebrook and Jack Hopewell travelled to Walsall to take part in the first major event of 2013, the Midlands Area Age Band Championships.

Connor, Ethan and Brandon were called first to three seperate mats, Connor in the u30kg category, Ethan in the u38kg and Brandon in the u42kg.

This was Connor’s first major event only having competed at Reb Belt events previously, in his first contest he battled well and narrowly lost out to a yuko score, his next fight was in the repecharge and again the contest went the full length with Connor losing by a Waza-ari.

Ethan won his first contest by Ippon but then lost his second round fight which now put him in the repechage and he needed to win all his remaining contests to secure a bronze. Ethan did just that the first by Ippon, the second by yuko and the bronze final also by yuko.

Brandon’s return to competitive judo since sustaining a major injury in September 2011 did not start too well with Brandon losing his first contest, he like Connor and Ethan before him was now in the repechage, unfortunately Brandon then lost his second contest and was eliminated.

Last up was Jack who was in the u46kg category, in the first round Jack started well beating his opponent by Ippon in 52 seconds, in the second round the contest went to full time in Golden Score and Jack won by flags taking him through to the final. In the final Jack needed only 31 seconds to take the win by Ippon throw and earn a Gold medal.

All four boys did extremely well at this high standard event; it is also worth mentioning that they all had moved up to new weights so this was a great start to 2013.