REPRESENTING Queen Katherine School, Kendal Judo Club’s Nathan O’Sullivan came away from the British Schools Judo Championships held in the EIS Stadium in Sheffield with the top award in his weight category (under 73 kilos) – the gold medal.

It is the first such award at these Championships for a Kendal player.

Overall there were nearly 600 competitors taking part in the tournament, and more than twenty in Nathan’s category in this prestigious national competition.

Nathan started well with his textbook Inner Thigh throw halfway through the contest against Conor Hewitt-Harvey from Chingford in Essex.

His next opponent, from Windsor, proved to be a little more difficult with the contest going into golden score before Nathan’s constant attacks had Ben Austen stacking up penalties until he was eventually disqualified for being overly defensive.

In the semi final, Joe Beckett from Crawley in Sussex lasted less than a minute before submitting to a strangle in the early exchanges.

The final went the full distance but an early half-point throw against Matt Brimicombe, from Basingstoke, and constant attacks for the rest of the contest made sure that Nathan came out on top of the rostrum.