Heart of England Success

The Heart of England Judo Championships held in the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham is the biggest one-day competition in the British calendar. Kendal Judo Club members always seem to come back with medals from the event and this year was no exception.

Michael Horley’s appearances on the contest area were brief and spectacular. A full length judo contest normally lasts five minutes unless ended by an Ippon score (judo’s equivalent of a knockout punch in boxing), Michael’s four contests to the final had a combined time of less than two minutes. He then met up with long time rival Bobby Rich who caught the Kendal fighter with a counter to one of Michael’s attacks. However the silver medal has given him confidence going in to the World Cup Championships in the same arena in a couple of weeks time.

Next to step on the rostrum was Danny Harper. Fighting in the category with the largest entry, Senior Men Under 73 kilo Danny, in his opinion, struggled but nevertheless managed the ultimate score with three ippon throws and a hold-down in his four contests to get into the final, the last one in sudden death “Golden Score” time. Unfortunately Danny then succumbed to a hold down himself against Jason Parsons from Devizes.

For a long time it looked as though Kendal was going to have three players in the final with Aaron Asplin beating Mason Rescoria from Polkyth, Number One Seed Sam Wyke from Pinewood and a very close quarter-final contest, against James Sparks from Tonbridge, that went to twice the normal contest length before the referee’s decision came down on Aaron’s side. In the semi-final the contest once again went the full distance. Despite escaping from a strong hold-down by his opponent, Max Stewart from Halesowen, Aaron could not claw back the score but, thanks to the repechage was in with a chance of a bronze medal. It was a chance he took with both hands, literally, as he threw his opponent from the full Ippon early in the contest.

Antony Lloyd lost his first contest by a single score but then fought back strongly in the repechage winning his next two fights by Ippon (Full point). Sadly he then lost the bronze medal fight against Lewis Dolman from Gosport but it was a very creditable fifth place. As was Katherine Lenney’s up hill fight against some of Britain’s top fighters in her category for a fifth place.