Judo: Imperial bring home the medals at London Uni Judo Open

Considering the 06:00 start, Imperial Judo were in high spirits as they trekked to the edges of civilisation in the wilderness of Uxbridge for this year’s London Senior Universities Judo Open, the biggest competition of the year so far. We hurried down the steps to Brunel yesterday to meet a very nervous coach who informed us we had four minutes to get weighed-in, the guys and girls hurried onto the scales to see if the morning ablutions had shaved off half a kilo.

Thrust onto the mat in front of a sizeable crowd (sadly missing some cheerleaders), Imperial displayed some great technique and caused real problems for the competition starting with the best Judo of the day from James Ko (U66kg) who solidly beat all 5 of his opponents and claimed gold without seeming to break a sweat?! Nikola (U90kg), on the other hand, decided throws weren’t his style and promptly threw the rules of judo out of the window. Instead of the tradition turn in and throw Nik pulled his opponent to the ground and forced them into an armlock Not exactly classy but a bronze medal is a bronze medal.

In between the two were an impressive collection of two-handed hips throws, drop throws and foot sweeps and a case of a particular person losing a match through falling over their own feet. Imperial dominated both men’s and women’s with Alice (U57kg) winning gold even though it was her first competition.

The black belts faced some incredibly tough opposition against people with various things written on their back, worrying things like GBR and WALES. Karl (U81kg) was unlucky losing both his fights to two of the best in the competition but Matt and Ed fought some heroic battles both losing only to the eventual winner and had to settle for bronze and silver. Marie (U63kg) fought hard but unfortunately lost in the final and took home the silver.

So when the final medals were dished out Imperial came home with an impressive two gold, two silver and five bronze medals (for Jake, Stefano, Bronwyn, Joe and Nik) and second in the competition overall. A great performance all round with some huge throws from everyone, not bad for a day’s work as everyone looks forward to BUCS.