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What a great turnout for Shinto Judo Club,
With four medals and a whole lot more fun, a great weekend was had by all in Hereford, with two more National Champions added to the Shinto Judo tally, and to boot all ten of them who took part are winners.
The BJC Junior Nationals in Hereford were held this weekend and we have just got in, Im Knackered, its a 400 mile round trip by car and we stayed over night in a hotel which we thought was only twenty minutes away from the venue only to find out when we got there that we were over 45 minutes away still.
We also found out that this hotel chain had two hotels in the Tewkesbury area, and the other Shinto Judo club guys traveliing down were all booked in the other one.
Thats the last time I allow the wife to organise hotel bookings
All in all however it was a nice weekend, we had ten kids entered, Shinto finished with two golds a silver and a bronze,
Its been ten years since Shinto have had kids in the Nationals, so it was a good start back.
The medal winners are
Alethia - U45kg Junior girls - Gold
Wesley - 031kg primary boys - Gold
Bethany - U28kg primary girls - Silver
Hannah - U55kg junior girls - Bronze
The other guys who competed did well, and faced a lot of unknowns, in order of when they fought this was how the day went
First up was Bethany, she got the silver by fighting her socks off, she did well and got beaten by a girl she regularly competes with who caught her ironically with what is quickly becoming Bethanys favourite throw a left handed o goshi.
Then we have Mitchell, he looked like he was giving away many years to his opponents, he fought like a trojan, got held down and beat one guy then lost another to a throw and hold down, he was a bit upset with himself but later realised that he learnt a lot.
Wesley, he won all his fights today, he was the biggest in the group but the final was a fight which he wasnt going to win easily as this kid knew his onions and gave him a run for his money, he had to work hard and won this with a couple of Uko's
Samuel was fighting about the same time, he had a hard day, all his opponents were quite advanced and seemed to be a lot bigger than him, I dont know if he was eating concrete before the weigh in, but he tried his best, only to be dominated by his opponents, he kept his chin up and did his best.
Molly then fought, she tried her best too, she got choked in her first fight which came as a bit of a shock to her, then she won a fight and lost the rest to ippon throws, or holds.
Alethia fought, she was one of the kids who said to me that she didnt really want to go to the Nationals as she hadnt fought all year and she was nervous, she didnt want to get beaten or hurt, she won and is now a national champion, so all her fears have been quoshed.
Hannah then fought and came out to lose her first fight and hurt her back in the process, she then came back out and won her remaining fights, bar one which netted her the deserved bronze.
Daniel, he did well as well, despite losing all bar one of his fights, when he won it was with a tai otoshi for Ippon, the kids he fought were scary even to me, they were more like blokes than kids, he was in the over 55 kg division and that meant he was fighting some kids that were 90kg, some national squad members too, he held his own.
Then it was Rhia's turn, she has just gone up into the espoirs division which means aged 16 to 18, and as she has just turned 16 so she fought some very experienced girls who took her apart on the day, but she did learn some valuable lessons, one of them is to listen to us when we say do not rush in to your opponent. she also learnt that you dont have to win be a hero, you have to try to be the best you can, the rest is just positions on a podium, if you do your best, you will always be a winner.
Now for Chris, his first real competition and he gets to go into the over 72kg espoirs, so first comp and it also the nationals and he is in the biggest guys division, he had to fight some guys who were nearing 90 kg, he is not much over 72kg, and he got beaten in all his fights, but he also went out there and fought like a winner in my book, he may not have a medal for his efforts but he has something much more valuable, experience and pride in his self.
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