4:00pm Friday 14th November 2008
A POTENTIALLY disastrous and inexplicable refereeing decision nearly ended No. 2 seed Michael Horley's part in the British Senior National Judo Trials in Sheffield.
Sixteen seconds into his first contest Kendal Judo Club player was disqualified for what the officials considered a dangerous (to himself) manoeuvre.
However, following a protest by Kendal club coach Mike Liptrot, Horley (pictured) was allowed to continue in one of the most important tournaments of the year.
It is at this event that the National Squad is selected and the opportunity to represent Britain in European and World Championships.
While the loss of his first contest was not a total disaster in the round-robin competition, it would have meant coming up against tougher competitors in the next round.
Horley easily saw off Craig Holmes from Dartford and Nicholi Daley from Erdington, the former with a tremendous seoi nage and the latter with two waza-ari (half-point) throws.
This put him through to the next round, which put him up against the No. 1 seed Jonathan Purssey from Pinewood.
After the offocials allowed Purssey almost ten minutes to recover from a cut-eye, he knocked Horley out of his rhythm as he was attempting to recover from a small score, which he was unable to do.
His next contest was against ex-British Open Champion Bobby Rich from the Budokwai in London.
Bobby had put Michael out of this event in 2007 so it was sweet revenge when the Kendal player threw him for ippon (full point) with o uchi gari (inner reaping throw).
Another big sacrifice throw from the Kendal player saw off Marcelino Agolano from the North-East and he was through to the final round.
The result of the earlier contest against Purssey was carried forward but two excellent tactical battles against Midlanders Will Kelly and Luke Taylor saw Michael ensconced as Britain's No. 2 player at Under-90 kilos.
Danny Harper, despite fighting very well, had a terrible draw with the eventual winner in his first pool. The second and third players he faced in his pool were all very experienced international competitors which stopped him going through to the last four.
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