News for 2006

Rhys Long : Gold medal
As the only one from Newent Judo Club who attended this event, Rhys did us proud. Rhys had a good training session working with lots of different people, this was then followed by a mini competition where everyone was divided into groups based on weight and ability. Rhys had 3 tough fights, eventually winning them all by ippon, the other three in his group were so close, they all beat each other and had to fight again to determine who was to get the silver. This was a very good event, well worth other members of the club attending the next one. Look in the gallery for the picture of him with his gold medal.

Elaine had a very quick trip to Sweden, there and back in 48 hours. Flying in on the Saturday morning having got up at 1.30am, watching the competition on Saturday, and checking her draw for the Sunday. Sunday she prepared herself for her first fight with Canadian Katy Bryant, who she was well matched against until making a slight mistake left her open to be thrown for ippon. The Swedish open was finished for Elaine unless Katy managed to win her next fight against the German Iljana Marzok, which unfortunately she didn't, so the rest of the day was spent watching the judo and learning from her experience. Elaine is now training hard and working on overcoming her weaknesses in preparation for the British Closed (3rd Dec).

Elaine O'Connell (-70kg) ; Silver medal

Evan Barber - 1st Mon
Jacob Barlow - 1st Mon
Kristian Williams - 1st Mon
Alexandra Parnell - 2nd Mon
Helena Parnell - 2nd Mon
Damien James - 3rd Mon
Luke Baldwin - 4th Mon
Guy Osborn - 6th Mon
Joshua Osborn - 6th Mon

Elaine had a busy summer. At the end of July she spent a week competing and training in Alicante, Spain where she got 5th place. Then she had a week back home recuperating before travelling to Germany for a month.
Elaine flew to Berlin where she took part in a training camp, where there was about 500 young people training. Following this she went to Frankfurt-Oder to train with the under 20 years German squad for two weeks. For the last week she travelled to Braunschweig where she took part in the German Senior Open, drawing the eventual Gold medalist in her first fight, and a top Belgian player for her second fight. Although she lost both fights, the second being very close, she gained valuable experience. Apart from the injuries she sustained (2 bad elbows from arm locks, cauliflower ears and lots of bruises) Elaine enjoyed the experience and is now prepared to build on the things she learnt. Her next competitions are the Welsh Open (7th Oct), Swedish Open (5 Nov) and the British Closed (3 Dec).

Izzy Butler (-40kg) ; Bronze
Rhys Long (-34kg), Matthew Peryer (-42kg) and Richard Peryer (-66kg) - all fought well and gained valuable experience.
Bryan Butler (-81kg) ; Bronze medal
Elaine O'Connell (-70kg) ; Gold medal
Elaine O'Connell (Open weight) ; Gold medal

Izzy Butler - 8th Mon
Ian Campbell - 12th Mon
Rhys Long - 7th Mon
Matthew Peryer - 11th Mon
Richard Peryer - 12th Mon