Judo - No glitz at the Brits for Kendal (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Judo - No glitz at the Brits for Kendal

12:03pm Thursday 26th May 2011 in Sport

AS HOST of the 2012 Olympic Games Britain can field a full team of seven men and seven women in the judo tournament.

But there is a caveat that whoever is entered must have managed at least a fifth place in a qualifying tournament.

The British Open Judo Championships held in Crawley this year is one such event.

Dominated by the French competitors, Kendal Judo members Danny Harper, David Groom and Michael Horley did not have luck running with them to get anywhere near the medals.

Indeed coach Mike LIptrot has promised them extra training in order to regain their British ranking status in the forthcoming events.

Danny Harper was first of the three to step on to the mat at U83 kilos. He disposed of his first opponent, Abbas Salihu from Nigeria with a swift ankle sweep (De Ashi Harai), although not until the contest went into extra time.

In his next contest was against Austrian Marcel Ott and he was the victim of a controversial new rule regarding "leg-grab" attacks which, as in the Kendal player's case, frequently requires repeat viewing of a video screen.

The Austrian player then inexplicably lost his next contest which meant Danny was out of the event.

David Groom had the misfortune to meet the eventual gold medallist Frenchman Loic Pietri in his first-round contest.

However, he did get back via the repechage beating Polish entry Radoslaw Koszczynski with an excellent attacking attitude, but Groom could not find a defence against Netherlands Henry Schoeman, who went on to win a bronze.

Last on the mat was Michael Horley who was caught by a counter throw from Swiss fighter Ciril Grossklaus.

Grossklaus wa beaten in the next round which gave no chance to the Kendal player of coming back in the tournament.

However it was not all bad news for Horley for he impressed the British national coach Patrick Roux sufficiently to be given a place on the British team to compete in June at a major tournament in Estonia.