Glorious gold may have proved elusive on this occasion but it was still another successful weekend for LUU Jiu Jitsu who came back from The Jitsu Foundation’s Judo Nationals with a fistful of medals.

Connor Evans (yellow belt) bagged the first of the club’s five medals winning bronze in his first ever Judo competition. The ‘Bradford Boy’ put his opponent on the back foot from the start and got the all-important twenty-five second pin with relative ease.

Club Treasurer Will Davison (orange belt) then looked to take a gold medal in his final bout but fell just short of the top prize for the second consecutive year. Davison seemed to have control in the early going but was caught out by a quick counter that he couldn’t recover from.

Jack Davy (purple belt) completed his medal collection with a bronze having won silver and gold in the previous two years. He had to do it the hard way, beating a competitor 22kg heavier than him along the way, and competed for the bronze with a sprained ankle and broken toe he had suffered the previous day.

Club Captain Kathryn Atkinson and Jo Brocklesby (both dark blue belt) capped off the medal haul by picking up silver and bronze respectively in the female Blue & Brown category. Along with fellow dark blue belt Juniata Bellham, they then had a go in the female Open. Atkinson was controversially denied passage to the second round on judge’s decision whilst the others were eliminated by much bigger and more experienced opponents.

Francois Mangin and Sensei Simon Pickersgill (club instructor) attempted to upstage the girls by entering the men’s Open and fared a little better with Mangin progressing to the second round before being eliminated by the eventual bronze medal winner.

The club shield was won by Kingston University leaving LUU Jiu Jitsu to get back to concentrating on maintaining their phenomenal grading record which has seen them become The Jitsu Foundation’s new yardstick.

Ranvir Kalare

Photo: Ranvir Kalare