ISAAC Sobolowski celebrated the fourth gold medal of his fledgling judo career at Samurai's open 'Mini-Me' Championships.

Lucy Hickinbottom also took her first gold medal and there were seven other Samurai medallists at the championships that were attended by over 20 judo clubs from as far away as Devon.

Three Samurai players were making their competition debut and all did well. Sam Darby was the first of these to compete and he reached the semi-final of his category before a loss to a player from Wellingborough stopped him from reaching the final. However, he won the bronze with victory in his last contest against a Halesowen player.

In the next contest, Samurai had Edward Martin, who won his first two contests against players from Birmingham and Dudley to reach the final against a Redditch player. The final was a close match but a single score from a throw against Edward was enough to decide it and leave him with the silver.

Harry Hannon-Homer was the next of the three Samurai debutants, but he was in the same category as Isaac, so he was always going to find it difficult and did well to end with a bronze medal. Isaac, meanwhile, looked simply unstoppable and a series of maximum point wins took him into the final against a Wolverhampton player. Within half a minute of the start of the final Isaac scored from a neat throw and then followed into a ground hold to win the contest and the gold medal.

Mateo Allen was next up and two maximum point wins against Dudley players took him into the semi-finals of his category. Unfortunately he lost here to a Smethwick player, but then came back to win the bronze.

Leo Lloyd-Williams showed great determination and spirit in his category. He reached the semi-final of his category before a narrow defeat by a single minor score against a Gloucester player ended his chances of reaching the final. However, he won the bronze play-off by a ground hold against a higher graded Droitwich player to take the bronze.

Scott Hulbert took gold at his last competition and started very well again in this one. Emphatic wins by maximum points against players from Birmingham and Kettering took him into the final against a Cirencester player. Scott dominated the final and looked likely to win before he was caught with a good throw into a ground hold and could not escape, and so had to settle for silver.

In the girls, Lucy Hickinbottom was on devastating form. She threw her first opponent, from Birmingham, for maximum points with just fifteen seconds on the clock and then within ten seconds of her second contest she had thrown her Aberystwyth opponent and followed smoothly into a ground hold for another maximum point win. She had another Welsh girl in the final who provided her biggest challenge, but Lucy always looked in control and with less than a minute gone she unleashed another maximum point throw to win the final and take the gold medal.

The last Samurai player to compete was their third debutante, Sophie Davis. Her father Richard was one of the club’s founder members way back in 1979, and although she has only been doing judo for a short period Sophie was determined to have a go, despite being against much more experienced players. After a narrow loss against a Wolverhampton player ended her chances of reaching the final, Sophie came back via the repechage system to compete for the bronze medal and comfortably defeated a much higher grade Dudley girl by maximum points to take the bronze.

Meanwhile, senior players Lucas Kent and Rob Starbuck were at the Bristol University Open Championships. Lucas just missed out on a medal after finishing fifth, but Rob reached the final with some good judo before losing to a much heavier player and had to settle for silver.

For details about starting judo, telephone 0776 1122977 or visit the Samurai website on samurai.org.uk.