Camberley Judo Club has made great start to the competition season in 2010. Last weekend members of the elite team competed in the senior North West Open. Nathon Burns fighting up a weight at 66kg won the silver medal with team mate Gareth Fairclough earning the bronze. Danny Williams also fighting up a weight at 81kg won the bronze medal as did GBR junior number one at 90kg Josh Butler. At only 16 years of age Robyn Irwin performed well to place 5th in the 63 kg division.
The following weekend Camberley’s younger fighters were in action at the Midland Age Banded Open and the seniors were competing in the prestigious Belgium Open for men and Bulgaria World Cup for women. Danny Finney stormed his way to gold in the junior event at 73kg winning the final in under a minute. Josh Butler won silver at 90kg losing in overtime by a contentious decision. Sam Hughes, at under 55kg, and Lasha Lekishvili 66kg both fought hard all day to win bronze medals. Jess Black just missed out on a medal at 63kg finishing 5th and Stuart Brown performed well for a respectable 7th place finish at under 60kg. Meanwhile in Belgium Nathon Burns at 60kg and Danny Williams at 73kg had great days with both achieving 5th place finishes. This tournament is one of the toughest open events on the calendar with 46 fighters competing at 60kg and a huge number of 80 in the 73kg. Danny and Nathon both completed six gruelling matches to earn their placings. This achievement has seen both fighters selected to represent GBR in the upcoming Austria World Cup. Also competing in Belgium Vince Skillcorn, back from injury, fought well beating his first two opponents convincingly and only losing to Japan. In the Bulgaria World Cup GBR no1 Sam Lowe placed 7th at under 78kg and will now look to better that performance in the upcoming Hungary World Cup. This weekend Karina Bryant Camberley’s top performer will compete in the Paris Grand Slam-the showpiece event for European judo and one that will see her compete against the very best in the world at +78kg.
