2:02pm Thursday 18th March 2010
KENDAL judo fighter Danny Harper became a gold-medal winning champion at the British Universities and Colleges Sport's Games in Sheffield last weekend.
It was a huge confidence-boosting triumph for Harper ahead of of the English Open Championships taking place on his doorstep at the Kendal Judo Club’s Dojo off Parkside Road this weekend.
At Sheffield Harper faced opponents from some of the top universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Bath and Imperial College, London.
But that did not put off the University of Cumbria's one representative, who scythed through the lot to take the Under-73 kilos title.
Because Harper’s weight category attracted the tournament’s largest entry, the preliminary round was fought on a round-robin format.
He took a little bit of time to warm up against Matthew Maddison from Bath University, which boasts a full-time judo squad, but the result was never in any doubt.
Nor was the next one when Harper took only 36 seconds to strangle his opponent into submission, and he was he was equally dominant when pinning his third opponent for the full point.
The Kendal Judo Club member's swift progress continued when he armlocked Strathclyde University's Craig Mullins in under half a minute.
Ryan Pitcock was Harper’s next victim when he pinned him to the ground for the required 25 seconds and Ippon.
In the tournament semi-final only a penalty separated Harper from the Imperial College, London opponent, but nothing was going to stop the Kendal player.
In the final a textbook throw in a little over a minute against Rahul Bose from Imperial College London gave Harper the gold medal in spectacular fashion.
Now he is looking to follow-up with a strng showing at the English Open Championships being held at the Kendal Dojo.
With competitors from Nigeria, Lithuania, Japan, Australia, and Belgium as well as the four Home Countries it promises to produce some spectacular action.
The competition starts at 9am and goes on to 5pm on both Saturday and Sunday
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