South Brent Judo Club has been busy recently, with seven judoka competing at the English Open in Walsall, four training at the national randori session in Walsall and two fighting at the BJC Nationals in Kettering.

The notoriously difficult English Open was the final UK ranking event of the season and attracted high profile judoka from across the country looking for ranking points.

The competition began with the cadets and a fantastic silver for Max Gregory in the U90kg category. Max after three dominant wins made the final, which he narrowly lost.

Sister Cordelia Gregory followed this up with a well- deserved gold in the over 70kg category. Cordelia was in great form and showed incredible tenacity to defeat girls who were older than her and earned her first 10 dan grade points.

Tom Smith (U66kg) showed great determination in his new weight group and won two fights and 10 dan grade points. This was a great result for Tom after a long recovery from injury. Josh Shipp continued his success in the U55kg, with two decisive wins in a group of 17 mainly England squad players.

Kolya Schwinge and Pierre Michelin both fought in the U73kg category, which was the largest group of the day. Pierre, in his new weight group, fought well and won two fights. Kolya won three fights and progressed to the crossover stage, where he narrowly lost his next fight.

As the day drew to a close the pre-cadets took to the mat. The trio of Zoe Butler (U57kg), Toby Parker (U34kg) and Kiya Butler (U40kg) fought very well, showed great determination and won well deserved bronzes.

Coach Gary Gregory was very impressed with their grit, determination and skills of the South Brent squad.

The following day Tom Smith, Josh Shipp, Cordelia and Max Gregory attended the England Open randori (practice) session and trained with other high calibre pre-cadet and cadet players from across the country. All the players rose to the challenge in the technical and randori sessions and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Meanwhile Toby Parker and Dd (Dephine) Stilwell made the long journey to the British Judo Council Nationals in Kettering, where they both won bronze after some impressive judo.

Overall an incredible weekend for SBJC, with one gold, one silver and four bronzes, including two for Toby Parker.

Take a look at the website southbrentweebly.com for more information on how you can get involved.