SAMURIA Judo Club’s Stefan Newbury has set his sights on refereeing at the Olympic Games after becoming one of an elite handful of international referees from Great Britain.

In the last year he has refereed at major events in Russia, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Greece before taking his final exam at the Italian Grand Prix event last weekend.

Now that he holds the coveted blue badge, he is able to referee at major European events, and after four years will be able to start working towards his world refereeing qualification.

That would be the stepping stone towards his eventual aim of refereeing at the Olympics.

Newbury started judo at the age of eight but sadly then developed a medical problem which stopped him from competing in the sport a couple of years later.

Rather than losing him from the sport, the Samurai encouraged him firstly into table officiating – he went on to become a senior recorder, able to run major tournaments – and then into refereeing.

He worked his way up the junior ranks as a referee, while gaining his judo grades on the technical rather than competitive pathway and eventually gaining his black belt, and later his second level black.

His superb progress continued and five years ago he became a national ‘A’ referee, and set his sights firmly on international status.

This weekend he is set to be officiating in Russia on the start of this next stage in the journey.