KIDDERMINSTER judo star Leah Grosvenor struck gold with a medal at the London Open Championships, defeating one of her main rivals in the final.

Leah won all three of her contests on her way to the final by maximum points, both with some spectacular throws and devastating groundwork.

In the final she took on a London girl who is just behind her in the national rankings. The contest went on for over nine minutes, but Leah was always in control and showed some pleasing tactical awareness and patience as she worked her way towards eventual victory.

Three of her clubmates from Kidderminster’s Samurai Judo Club took bronzes, with Olivia Turner maintaining her lead at the top of the Worcestershire medals table with a bronze while Jack Walker and Harry Ashen also got bronze medals.

Harry’s older brother Jake was unlucky not to get into the medals as well after a good performance.

Leah’s result completes an excellent couple of months for her, during which she has won gold at the Scottish Open and Northern Ireland Open events and also finished a creditable ninth place in her first Cadet European Cup in Portugal, only losing to the eventual silver and bronze medalists in her first event at this level.

Meanwhile, Rob Alloway took silver at the High Wycombe Masters tournament and Lucas Kent took two medals, silver in the under-16 section and also silver in the senior section, at the Goole Open.

Gary Knight also competed in his first second level black belt grading and gained 20 points, winning all four of his contests but only able to score points on two of them.