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Judo kids shine at Cheshire championships

16/ 7/2008

WILMSLOW leisure centre recently hosted the 2008 Cheshire Judo championships, which are open to clubs throughout the north west.

And Wilmslow Judo club dominated the event, winning 22 medals in total.

The juniors won four golds, seven silver and nine bronze medals to top the medal table.

This is especially impressive given clubs from Urmston, Warrington, Rochdale and the Wirral sent their best players to the event.

Two senior Wilmslow members also took part and won a gold and a bronze medal.

The star of the day, however, was young Luke James who, having fought four opponents, had a further two fights with two other contestants who had won the same amount of bouts as him.

His first fight was very tough with James winning with a spectacular throw with only 30 seconds left in the bout.

His second fight was even harder as this was James’ sixth fight and his opponents’ fifth fight.

This contest was even closer with both players giving their all, but James was victorious when he countered an attack with a superb shoulder throw putting his opponent firmly on his back and winning the gold medal.

The two players James had beaten were so exhausted they were unable to fight each other for the silver and bronze medal, so they shared the silver.

Coach Paul Burgess said: "Luke’s effort was truly outstanding.

"To fight six times in a competition at this level is unheard of.

"An international player may have six fights to win an Olympic gold medal.

"It is even more remarkable as Luke is only nine years of age."