Jack Hopewell Wins National Title

On Sunday 22 September Connor Tait, Ethan Ward, Brandon Allsebrook and Jack Hopewell represented our club at the 2013 British Champions for 10-12 year olds that were held in Kidderminster.

The British Championships is the most prestigious event of the year where players from all over Great Britain converge to compete to become the British Champion in their weight category. The majority of the categories were split into pools initially and then the top two places in each pool would progress into a simple repechage system.

Connor was our lightest player at u30kg and his category had 14 fighters in total, he was in a pool of five and would need to secure at least three wins to progress to the repechage. He started well beating his first opponent by Ippon throw; he then lost his second which meant he had to win the remaining two contests. After a tough three minutes Connor took the win by a waza-ari scored earlier in the contest, his fourth opponent withdrew and therefore secured Connor a place in the repechage.

Connor received a bye in the first round of the repechage putting him into the semi-final, Connor put up a brave battle but was eventually outmatched by his more experienced opponent and would now fight for bronze. In the bronze contest he was caught for a quick Ippon by his opponent and finished in 5th place.

Ethan was in the u38kg category with 30 other competitors, he was in an initial pool of five and like Connor before him would need to win three contests to progress. Ethan bulldozed through the first three contests winning them all with Ippon throws and holds, his fourth contest was no so easy and went the full three minutes with his opponent eventually taking the win by a waza-ari throw.

Ethan was now through to the repechage and his first contest went the full three minutes with no player managing to score, it was now golden score and the first player to score would win, the contest went another two minutes before Ethan was eventually outmatched by his opponent and this now meant his opponent would need to reach the final to bring Ethan back into the contest. Unfortunately he lost his next contest which eliminated Ethan from the event.

Brandon along with 34 other fighters was in the u42kg category; Brandon was drawn in a pool of four and would need to win two contests to progress. Brandon fought well but did not manage to secure a win and was eliminated from the event.

Our final fighter of the day was Jack Hopewell who was in the u50kg category along with 12 other fighters. Jack was drawn in a pool of four and like Brandon would need to win two to progress. Jack quickly secured his place in the repechage winning his first two contests with Ippon throws, his third contest went the full three minutes with his opponent claiming victory by a waza-ari scored earlier in the contest. Jack was now through to the first round of the repechage in which he took the contest winning by an Ippon throw placing him in the semi-final. The semi-final was a close fought match lasting the full three minutes however Jack emerged as the winner as his opponent had received two penalties. Jack was now in the final where he was to meet the only opponent that he had lost to earlier in the day. After a march on of all the finalists Jack took to the mat in what was the biggest contest of his judo career to date. It was almost an identical contest as the one fought earlier however this time Jack scored a waza-ari early in the bout and now had to either score higher or hold onto the lead for a few more minutes. It was a tense couple of minutes with both boys fighting for the win however Jack had listened well and managed to out match his opponent this time and take the victory! Meaning Jack had now secured 1st Place, Gold medal and the British Champion title for 2013.

Congratulations also to club regular Charlie Young who took the British Championship title for the third time.

There was some great judo from all of our competitors and we are very proud of their performances and sportsmanship throughout the day. They cannot rest though as they are now also eligible for the main British Championships as Pre-Cadets and that event takes place on Sunday 8 December.