KENDAL Judo Club had more cause for celebration this week as they collected a handful of medals at the North West Open.

And with the British Judo Association reintroducing a ranking system to select the national squad, it earned some good points for the lads towards the national trials at the end of the year.

In the Under 90kg class, 2nd Dan Michael Horley was unstoppable as he whistled past Simon Woods from Wales and competitors from the Midlands and Scotland.

His semi-final against Ruslan Rancev lasted just 45 seconds and he took the gold medal by forcing Nicholl Daley from Erdington into submission in just 33 seconds.

David Groom took a little longer to reach the final of the Under 81kg class where he came up against Camberley’s Daniel Williams, but he had the same result as Horley as he also collected a gold medal.

Kendal’s Danny Harper was ranked first in the Under 73kg class after the first round elimination pool, but a slip in his semi-final allowed Patrick Dawson from Scotland to pin him.

In his repechage fight for bronze Harper made sure of the medal with a half point score against Liam Ashton-Farr from Bath University.

In the Coloured Belt Category Josh Carine was going well until an unstoppable Uchi Matat throw by Kier Hodgson of Clayton Green kept him from the top spot and he had to settle for silver in his first major tournament.