JUDO: Luton duo enjoy golden moment

Both were fighting younger, competitive and skilful opponents in their pools and progressed through to the medal stages by coming top in their relevant pool category with maximum scores through superb techniques scoring maximum ippon points.

The final rounds saw more ippon techniques with the ultimate result of both becoming national champions.

Another instructor from the club, Alan Kirk, took his first opponent with a convincing ippon win but unfortunately missed out on the medals after some tough fights.

This was Kirk’s first competitive judo after nearly 14 months out through injury.

The club also had entries from junior member Ben Candy and primary student Max Jones.

For both this was a first time attempt at a national event and they excelled, winning their first fights in convincing style before the opposition became just too tough.