Camberley warriors and supporters travelled in force to Belfast for the Junior and Senior Northern Ireland Open with Coach Vince Skillcorn.
In senior -60kg James Martin kicked off the action and set the standard high. He looked sharp and fought really well, after winning his first contest by maximum points he defeated Brandon Dodge in the semi-final and Adam Conroy in the final. Both are fierce adversary and it was the first time James had defeated either of them. The first gold medal in the CJC bag.
Lasha Lekishvili fought in the senior and junior with mixed success. In the junior he won 2 fights by maximum points to get in to the final. Facing Alex Hughes from Tonbridge he went down a score but applied the pressure and managed to pull back the lead with a 7 point score, bagging the second gold for CJC. In the seniors he didn’t fare so well, looking less confident than in the Juniors Lasha won his first contest but then lost the following 2 putting him out of the competition.
In -66kg CJC had 3 representatives, Aaron Turner, Andrew Panayi and Dru Oakes. All 3 fought well and training together every day with others such as Nathon Burns and Lewis Keeble is clearly pushing these up and coming players along. This time Aaron came out on top of the 3 CJC fighters with the bronze medal, defeating club mate Andrew in the bronze medal contest. Andrew finished with a 5th after winning 3 contests and losing 2. Dru won 2 contests to get to the semi-final but then lost and dropped into the bronze medal fight, unfortunately he then had to withdraw due to injury which was a shame as he would have faced an opponent he had already defeated earlier in the day.
New to the CJC team was Laura Tapping who fought -70kg, she picked up some good experience but no wins this time. Lee Shinkin stepped up a weight to -81kg and despite this dominated the weight. He won 3 fights by maximum points to meet John Hisee in the final. The contest went to full time with Shinkin controlling the fight all the way and securing the win for gold.
The following day it was the youngster’s time to shine in the age banded section. Dennis Gorman in his first competition outside of England fought in -41kg minors. Showing huge improvements in his contest fighting he won 2 out of 3 fights in his pool putting him in the semi-final. He wasn’t able progress any further this time being held down by his opponent. A good performance and a well-deserved bronze medal. Next up was Toby Roberts in pre-cadet at -50kg, despite carrying a nasty knee injury he fought well. Looking mature in his approach to each fight he won all 4 contests by maximum scores, 2 in standing and 2 in ground work. This was the fourth CJC gold of the weekend. In the heavier weight of -55kg Ewan Tweedie started well and is again showing signs of improvement. He fought well in both contest but small mistakes cost him the wins and saw him put out of the competition.
Another good weekend for Camberley Judo Club and it’s fighters and lovely to hear stories of the team spirit from parents and players alike.
