North West Age Band Competition 2014 – Results
On Sunday 16 February Ethan Ward and Jack Hopewell represented our club at the North West Age Bands Competition that was held in St Helens.
This was the second ranking event of 2014 at which a lot of the top competitors throughout the UK were in attendance and the boys were determined to improve on their performance at the Midland Area event a couple of weeks earlier.
Jack was up first in the u50kg category with 11 other competitors, Jack’s first opponent was the same person that he lost to in the first contest at the Midlands event, this time around it was Jack that took the win eventually outmatching his opponent and winning by a penalty. His second contest was also a re-run from the Midlands event and again it went the full duration with Jack’s opponent taking the win with a Waza-Ari scored earlier in the contest. Jack was now in the repechage and again his contest went the full duration with Jack edging his opponent out with Yuko score. Jack now needed to win the next contest to get through to the bronze final, it was an even match throughout and both players collected penalties, in the last 30 seconds Jack was trailing and had to attempt to get a score in order to win, however his attack was countered and Jack was now out of the competition, finishing 7th overall. This was a great improvement from the previous event and Jack worked hard throughout changing tactics and techniques.
Ethan was in the u42kg category, we made a decision that even though he could still possibly make u38kg that this was the best time to move to the higher weight in order to prepare for the rest of the year. There were 11 other competitors in this group and Ethan got one of the byes in the first round. In his first contest he battled hard attacking constantly with his opponent struggling to defend or attack and therefore as a result he received four penalties and Ethan took the win. In the Semi-Final Ethan lost to the eventual winner after being turned and held for Ippon, he would now fight in the bronze final. The bronze final was a tight contest with both players struggling to get a score, mid contest Ethan picked up a penalty and this eventually decided the outcome, even though Ethan pulled out all the stops to try and get a score, his final position was a credible 5th place.
Also in action was club regular Charlie Young, Charlie was in the u38kg category with 11 other competitors. Charlie bulldozed through his first two contests scoring with Ippon throws, in the semi-final the contest went the duration and Charlie edged the win by a penalty, he was now in the final. The final also went the full three minutes and Charlie secured the win by a penalty and was awarded the Gold medal.
It is great to see such hard work, determination and great sportsmanship from these young players, they are great role models for the lower grades coming through the ranks.
North West Age Band Championships 2014 ResultsVideos of some of the contests can be found below:
