Kin Ryu Judo News

  On Saturday the dragons headed to Cardiff for the Welsh Pre Cadet and Cadet Open. This was the 1st ranking tournament of 2021 and saw some of the best GB athletes taking to the mats. Representing the the club were Pre Cadets Jack Scriven, Peter Crawford and Lucy Robinson. All three athletes fought well with Jack taking part in his 1st Pre Cadet event, although he didn't win any contests he took away valuable mat time.  Peter and Lucy are both experienced Pre Cadets and fought well to take Silver and bronze in their categories. In the Cadets section Callum Burke and Megan Howe both made excellent advances in their new age bands winning their 1st cadet contests. Rhian Hooker was also stepping out at national cadet level for the 1st time and fought well in a tough category. Our final athletes were Declan Knight and Josh Browning who fought well in tough groups. No medals this time but making excellent progress in their categories.  Well done team. Peter winning silver

  Kin Ryu head coach Martin Rivers headed out to his 1st IJF event of 2021 after being selected for the World Veteran Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. Martin had a great event achieving a place in the final bock every day over the 4 day tournament, a great achievement for any referee. 

  Over the weekend our senior men and women got back to competing after a 2 year break at the Samurai senior high grades open. On Saturday it was the turn of our ladies and representing the club we had Rhian Hooker, Clare Bowie and Megan Rothwell. It was great to be back on the mat with our seniors and after some exciting contests the final results were bronze medals for all our ladies.  On Sunday it was the turn of the men and representing the club was  Ruslan Khadzhiev, Declan Knight, Aidan Tang, Louis Rothwell, Thomas Moore, Kestutis Pulokas, Ross Mccartney and Oscar Cutter.  Our 1st Kyu's had one thing on their mind..... points for their black belts. In the light weight group Aidan, Louis and Thomas all fought well taking taking the 1st points for their black belts as they all won contests with the maximum 10 point scores. In the light middle weight group Declan, Kestutis and Ross also fought well in large groups but won contests in style to take 10 points each towards their bl

  Judo is back! This weekend saw the dragons heading back to UEL in London for the C2 International competition. On Saturday our U15 pre cadets took to the mats and fighting for the club was Daniil Grishin u46kg, Tyler Hill u50kg, Sam Tang u50kg and Zara Howe u36kg. All 4 athletes had recently had success at the English Closed tournament so were looking to continue their winning streaks.  Dan started strongly winning his first 4 contests in style to book an early place in the final. His final contest proved to be a close, nail biting contest with it being all even going into extra time. After 3 minutes of extra time it was Dan's opponent who managed to get the score and he took an impressive silver medal. Sam and Tyler were once again competing in the same weight group and made impressive starts winning their initial fights with strong ippon throws. In the semi-finals both the lads lost their contests which put them into the bronze medal fights but again they powered through to bot