It has been a memorable year for local judo with a number of athletes making their mark on the national scene.
Welsh and British honours have been secured with Go Judo in Llandrinio looking forward to making another impression in 2017.
Back in November, the club welcomed home three Welsh Champions from the Welsh Closed Championships in Brecon with Adam Castell winning Gold in the Junior -100kg category, Joshua Whitehouse winning Gold in the +90kg Cadet category and Reuben Lovatt taking Gold in the -55kg Pre Cadet category.
Ffion Lovatt added a Silver for the club in the -63kg Cadet category and has been selected onto the Talent Cymru Welsh Cadet Squad by the Welsh National Coach George Bountakis.
The club’s judoka then stepped up to the British Open Judo Championships at the Sheffield English institute of Sport earlier this month where they went toe-to-toe with the best in Britain.
Seren Lovatt, who was unable to fight in the Welsh Closed, decided to fight in Sheffield at the British Open and was nursing some sore ribs but showed courage, determination and heart, by getting a big Ippon throw and winning Bronze to become No 3 in Great Britain (pictured, right).
“It was also a very positive display of hard fought Judo from Steven Breese, Ffion and Josh in big groups with over 30 players, just falling short of the medals,” said coach Pete Castell.
Go Judo hold their coaching nights on Tuesdays and Fridays at Llandrinio Village Hall with Beginners (6-7pm) and Advanced and Seniors (7-8pm).
For more information, contact Pete on 0169 1831874 or go.judo@yahoo.com.