Nottingham Open 2012 – Results

On Sunday 17 June Nottinghamshire staged the annual Nottingham Open competition at the Harvey Hadden Sports Centre. This event is one of the largest every held in Nottingham with over 200 competitors from 62 clubs from throughout the UK competing over three mat areas.

Ethan Ward, Marija Beliukeviciute, Conor Humphreys and Arunas Beliukevicius were representing our club on the day.

Ethan was in the Boys u12 u34kg category along with eight other fighters. The nine players were split into two pools and Ethan was in a pool of five, he would have to finish in the top two to make it through to the knock-out.

Ethan battled through the group securing an Ippon win by way of a throw in the first contest, then a throw and hold for Ippon in the second, an Ippon throw in 47 seconds secured the third win and the final pool contest went the full three minutes with Ethan winning by a Yuko score. Ethan was now through to the semi-final where he met the runner up of the second pool, he quickly dispatched his opponent with a quick throw and hold for Ippon in under 30 seconds. In the final Ethan was up against a great opponent from Pinewood JC in London, Ethan managed to hold him off for a while and get some good attacks in however Ethan was keen not to be caught in a hold and made a mistake that gave a winning opportunity to his opponent, resulting in a Silver medal for Ethan.

Conor was in the Boys u16 u66kg category with four other competitors, Conor lost his first two contests and then was injured in the third and therefore had to withdraw and was taken to hospital. He was later discharged with bad bruising to his back.

Marija was next up in the Girls u16 u40kg with three other competitors. Marija dispatched her first opponent in 10 seconds with an Ippon throw; her next contest only lasted a few seconds longer beating her next opponent by Ippon throw in 18 seconds. This meant the last contest was to be the final as her opponent had also won two contests, however Marija had met this competitor on numerous occasions before and was yet to pull off a win, again Marija just could not get the better of her and half way through the contest Marija was held for Ippon earning Marija a Silver medal like Ethan before her.

Our final Competitor was Arunas in the Men’s Brown Belt and below u73kg category like Conor before him he also had four other opponents in his group. This was the first event Arunas had entered since having a second operation on his knee and had not trained much so he needed to work hard to secure any wins. Arunas was off to a good start winning his first contest by two Waza-Ari throws within 38 seconds, however his next two contest were a little tougher the first went into Golden Score and Arunas was awarded victory after his opponent received a second penalty and the second went to the end of contest and golden score with Arunas being awarded the win on flags. Arunas had now only one contest to win to secure the Gold and even after the two long contests previously he managed to stay strong and dispatched his final opponent with an Ippon throw in under 40 seconds, securing a well earned Gold medal for Arunas.

The points earned from this event also earned Arunas one of our club’s Five Star Gold Badge and Arunas now joins only a handful of students that have earned this award.

Videos of all of the contests can be viewed below: