ONE of Samurai Judo Club’s referees was in Serbia to be - come the club’s first interna - tionally-qualified referee.

Archi Shrimpton was one of two British candidates at - tempting to become Interna - tional Judo Federation (IJF) continental referees.

This is the first of two international officiating levels, and qualifies the person to referee at European events.

It is the stepping stone towards IJF International referee, the pool from which the Olympic referees are drawn.

Shrimpton scored top marks in his practical as sessment as well as nailing his theory exam.

Starting judo at Samurai at the age of 13, he had a reasonably successful contest career, with four gold out of his total medal haul of 15. But his greater success was in gradings where he reached second dan.

Having started refereeing as a junior, he found this was where his interest really lay.

He and Stefan Newbury began to do the tour of national and later international events together, rising through the ranks to become National A referees.

Shrimpton has just completed his four-year spell at the A status and has already refereed all over Europe at mid-level events.

Prior to his success, Britain had only three active con - tinental referees and only three people are on the Brit - ish programme to attempt qualification for that level.

Samurai have a great reputation in terms of producing referees and officials.

Head coach Andrew Haffner said: “Becoming a referee is hard and getting to the top is even harder.

“Archi has worked really hard and and thoroughly deserves his success.”