Well done to Camberley’s Elite team at the weekend. In San Salvador Pan American Open in -66kg Nathon Burns defeated a Brazilian, American and Canadian on his way to an epic final battle. Facing Santos Junior of Brazil he narrowly missed out on the Gold after 8 gruelling minutes in the final! Silver is still an impressive result at this level of Olympic qualifying event. Team mate Aaron Turner, also in -66kg, beat a Brazilian and an American, progressing to the semi final. After losing to the eventual gold medallist he took revenge in the bronze medal match and defeated Bolen of USA to take the bronze. Inspired by his team mates efforts and well and truly back on form was Danny Williams in -73kg. He stormed past opponents from Chile, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Canada, displaying some impressive ground work along the way and staking his claim on the gold medal. CJC’s Szandra Szogedi was also competing and representing Ghana at -63kg. She made a good start defeating a Venezuelan fighter but sustained a nasty back injury and subsequently had to withdraw from the competition, although still with a 7th place. More valuable Olympic qualifying points for everyone, well done!
Across the waters in Baku, Azerbaijan CJC had 3 fighters representing Team GB in the inaugural European Games. Ashley McKenzie -60kg and Owen Livesey -81kg both won their first match, with Owen throwing a former World Silver medallist for ippon in spectacular style. Unfortunately along with team mate Frazer Chamberlain -90kg, they were unable to make it to the medal rostrum this time around.
Slightly closer to home at the Kent International James Martin got Gold -66kg, Andrew Panayi Silver and Reece Howard 5th place, all in the same weight. Reece also picked up the Gold in -60kg (by default due to there being no other competitors!).
Another successful weekend for CJC.
