This weekend I attended the IBSA World Judo Championships in
Eger, Hungary, along with 5 team mates.
The competition is a qualifying event for Rio so tensions
were high! In my first round I drew the current Paralympic champion Masaki
Kento – Japan (who makes me look tiny!) Unfortunately I was unable to conquer
him and he threw me in a rather powerful throw. As I lost the first round I dropped
into the repercharge which means I then had to win my next 2 fights to win a
bronze medal.
I dominated my next fight against Baurxhan Begaidarov from
Kazakstan , defeating him in 40 seconds which meant I moved onto the next round
to face the semi-finalist Aleksander Parasiuk from Russia. Aleksander is
already sitting nicely on the qualification ladder so he did not come across as
very happy when I defeated him by ippon in 20 seconds! At this point my coach
got a little excited as this is my first really big International win and will
catapult me from 11th in the World rankings, to possibly top 6 which
is a very comfortable place to be!
So all in all I was very pleased with this result. Out of
the 4 medallists, the other 3 all competed in London 2012, so I am definitely up
there!!
The following day I was entered into the Junior World
Championships (I am 18). GB have a strong history in this event so I was
determined to carry this on. Unfortunately for me 3 of my opponents refused to
fight me! (Chuckle) so I obtained automatic wins from them and defeated
Abderrahim Mehdaoui from France to take the Gold and the World Championship title.
Top Junior in the World – think I can handle that!
Having the National Anthem played for me was quite emotive!
Let’s hope I hear it again soon!
Following the 2 competitions we had a 3 day training camp so
I got to spend a lot of time throwing people about – I made sure I got a few
throws in on the big Japanese fella that beat me! Can’t let him think I’m a
wimp!! J
I’m onto Brazil next in 2 weeks’ time followed by Germany in
April and Seoul, Korea in May! Busy boy!
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