Kendal Players in GB Team in Brazil

Michael Horley and David Groom were part of the Great Britain team which won a bronze and silver medal in two major televised Team competitions in Brazil. They fought against World Champions, Olympic Medallists and Pan American Champions from Brazil, France and Portugal.

Their first tournament was in Vittoria and was fought in temperatures of 40 degrees celsius with no air-conditioning. Michael's first fight was against the home crowd's favourite Olympic silver medallist and former World Champion Tiago Camillo. The heat and aggressive attacks put in by the Kendal player drained him and he was thrown at the end of the contest for the full point. Having recovered and got used to the heat Michael was then up against the Portuguese international medallist Hugo Silva who Michael dominated not allowing him any chance of putting in his own attacks and the British player's win gave the team the bronze medal.

David Groom did much better against his Brazilian opponent throwing him with "The Twitch" (Tani-Otoshi) and was equally successful against his Portuguese opponent.

This event was followed by four days of training and, as Michael put it, abusing the "all you can eat" buffet in the hotel. They were recognised while in the hotel being told they had been seen on TV which showed the interest in the sport in Brazil. It is a pity we cannot get the same recognition in this country.

The second event was a major, live on TV, tournament in Belo Horizonte. This was a 10 hour journey on a luxury coach but the novelty wore off after an hour when the mp3 player's batteries failed. Prior to this second tournament the teams had to attend a press conference. It was all in Portuguese and was an insight as to how much of a big deal the competition was and how much celebrity status Camilo, Correa etc had.

This time the British Team were up against the Portuguese for their first contest.. Michael was put in the team in the Over 100 kilo slot despite only weight 98.8 kilos and in his contest he was up against an opponent nearly 30 kilos heavier. Although he was outweighed Michael was not out gunned and beat the player from Portugal two scores and a penalty to nothing.

Britain then came up against Brazil, this time fighting for Gold against the Home team. Under the hot TV lights, Michael's had to wait as his contest was held up for a commercial break on TV. Again giving away nearly 25 kilos although he attacked hard the weight advantage of his opponent scored and eventually Michael was caught with an Uchi Mata for the full point. David had fought former World Champion and Olympic Bronze medallist Flavio Canto. He rattled his opponent a couple of times with foot sweeps and managed to avoid the Brazilian's famous and feared ground work but didn't see the Tomoe Nage coming which lost David the contest.
A silver medal was a good result with the two Kendal players contributing to the British Team's success.

When they had finished fighting the GB team were surrounded by children wanting their autographs and they signed their names what seemed like a hundred times or more.

Michael said the Brazilian team were very friendly and it was great to train and compete with the best in the world.