Camberley Judo Club fighters have had a great end to the 2010 season. At the British Age banded championships in Sheffield Camberley came away with one gold, two bronzes and a fifth place finish. Robyn Irwin took her first national title at 63kg with club mate Jess Black claiming the bronze medal. Both girls fought well all day but unfortunately had to face each other in the semi-final with Robyn winning narrowly in golden score. Sam Hughes battled back from a split decision loss in the semi-final to take the bronze medal at 55kg. Lasha Lakishvili was very unlucky to finish the day without a medal but his fifth place finish at 66kg will stand him in good stead for next year’s junior trials.
The following weekend at the Scottish Open brought Camberley success at both junior and senior level. In the junior section Sam Hughes took the gold at 55kg. Frazer Chamberlain and Danny Finney both competed at 81kg with Frazer winning silver and Danny taking the bronze medal. Lasha Lekishvili fought very well taking silver at 66kg and avenged his bronze medals loss from the national championships. Robyn Irwin again medalled-with a bronze medal at 63kg. The following day in the senior event Becky Dunning (Hardy Spicer) won all of her contests to take the title at 57kg. Lasha Lekishvili and Jess Black, both youngsters, fought very well against senior fighters to finish in fifth place at 66kg and 63kg respectively.
Camberley’s senior elite team members came away from the back to back Sweden and Finland Opens with a bag full of medals. At the first stop of the Nordic tour, Boras in Sweden, Camberley won medals of all colours. Karina Bryant destroyed all opponents in under a minute to win gold at +78kg. Craig Fallon (Hardy Spicer) fought up a weight division at 66kg and took a bronze medal in fine style. Sam Lowe at 78k also showed class-winning a bronze. Tom Davis (Willesden) finished the medal haul with another bronze at 81kg. Becky Dunning fought well to finish in a respectable 7th place at 57kg.
The following weekend in Helsinki, Finland, Camberley’s team faired even better. Karina Bryant completed the double at +78kg taking yet another title-again with maximum points in all contest. Sam Lowe also took her second Finland Open title with a dominating performance at 78kg. Completing the gold streak was Craig Fallon, back at his normal weight of 60kg. Like Karina, Craig won all contests with the maximum score. Becky Dunning went a stage further than the previous week when she reached the final at 57kg but had to settle for silver. Also performing well was Danny Williams at 73kg-taking fifth place in the division with the highest numbers.
The cadet section of the club was not to be outdone in Europe and travelled to Sint Truiden in Belgium for an international open. For many it was their first taste of fighting abroad and the whole group performed well. Sam Hughes led the way in the junior section-fighting up a weight at 60kg and winning silver. Oliver Bergvist took the a gold medal and Toby Roberts, Oliver Baldwin, Saul Irwin and Lucas Durrant came away with well deserved bronze medals.
Karina Bryant competed in the final tournament of the year for Camberley when she participated in the prestigious Tokyo Grand Slam. In one of the judo world’s toughest events Karina finished in fifth place losing only once to the eventual winner from Japan.
