With eyes set firmly on next year’s Island Games in Gibraltar, a group of Manx judokas competed in the North West Area Judo Lancashire Open in Kendal recently.

Three of the island’s most competitive juniors, Nathan Kennaugh, Juliana Kopacz and Daniel Taylor also travelled, this being one of judo’s main annual events in the north west.

The juniors competed first, with 13-year-old Nathan and 12-year-old Juliana fighting without technical restrictions.

They were not out of their depth and, with strong national competition, both earned silver and bronze medals respectively.

Daniel, age 11, exhibited a sterling performance, winning his first contest by Ippon (10-point score and outright win) in eight seconds with a superb inner-thigh throw.

He made short work of his next two contests, winning them both with Ippon before a really tough penultimate battle. He was thrown but avoided defeat and, despite being in obvious pain after landing hard on his face, the Manx judoka fought on and produced another devastating inner -high throw.

Daniel’s final fight proved to be one too many as he was still hurt from the previous gruelling contest, but he still earned a well-deserved silver medal.

In the cadet category, 16-year-old Will Hearnden fought strongly but lost to his more-experienced club-mate Paul Crawley. Hearnden received bronze with 17-year-old Crawley earning silver.

Alex MacMillan, 16, and Connor Craig, 15, had their cadet weight groups combined which meant they were drawn to face each other.

MacMillan’s first fight was against Harrison Burns of Beach Judo Club. The latter’s first attack, a winding throw could have ended the contest, but the initial score was overturned and it continued. It was a strong, tough battle eventually ending on the ground, with MacMillan taking full advantage of his early luck to win to with an arm lock.

Craig fought Burns next and, with the latter already weakened from the previous contest, the Manx judoka was the more dominant of the two and won the clash - again on the ground - with a sliding collar strangle.

The fight between the two Manx competitors was always going to prove difficult. In the end it was gold for MacMillan with a beautifully-executed shoulder throw, but his savage contests meant he was forced to withdraw from further competition and unable to join Craig and 17-year-old Magnus Black in the seniors.

Two pools separated the team-mates until the semi-finals, but Craig was stronger and went into the final, securing victory with a fantastic winding throw and a final Ippon. Black also clinched the bronze medal.

Bekkie Webster and Liam Corlett both earned bronze medals in tough groups and Gareth Watt, in his first event, entered in two weight categories to get extra competition experience, duly winning bronze in each.

Some great judo, great tenacity and some tough decisions ahead for the squad coaches Richard Lloyd and Chris Horton, who were impressed with the determination and ferocity exhibited.

The team would like to thank Darren Edwards of Lancaster who took the photographs at the competition.

Harry Goshy

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