LEAH Grosvenor cruised to a comfortable gold medal at the Northern Ireland Open Championships in Belfast.

Competing in the age range above her own, the Samurai Judo Club starlet had a bye in the first round and then an easy win in round two with a nice hip throw to put herself into the semi-final against a strong Scottish player. However, Leah dominated the contest from the start and came close to scoring several times before she finally scored with a backwards throw. She moved straight into a ground hold to gain a maximum score and a place in the final.

The final was against a Berkshire girl who has given Leah problems in the past, but Leah was quickly a score up and then dominated the rest of the contest, coming close several times to gaining another score but in the end a comfortable winner on the single score.

Meanwhile, Olivia Turner travelled to Belgium for the Eernegum Open. Fighting in the open weight category, she was giving a lot of weight away to French, Belgian and Dutch players but did well to win the bronze and might have got a higher medal had she not taken a knock to her knee.

Back at the Samurai club, a total of forty players have been promoted after a recent grading. In the adults section, Mark Allen and Rob Starbuck went to blue belt, whilst three newer seniors, Alex Sobolewski, Nick Deeley and Charlie Arnull, all gained their red belts, the first judo grade.

In the junior grades, recent British Schools Champion Jake Ashen gained his blue belt. Current British National Champion Loic Keasey and former British Nationals silver medalist Cerys Jones bothe moved to middle green belt, whilst two more current British National Champions, James Harrison and Harry Ashen, both moved to top orange.

Lower down the grades, Rhea Turner, Katy Jennings, Harrison Flello and Mateo Allen all moved to top yellow belt, whilst Lucy Hickinbottom moved to middle yellow belt and Isaac Sobolewski stayed ahead of his dad in the belt colours by moving to yellow belt.

Six players moved to top red belt, these being Scott Hulbert, Joe Blanchfield, Edward Martin, Joel Haywood, Sophie Davis and Lewis Perry . Another seven players went to middle red belt: Anna Baddeley, Sam Darby, Zac Westwood, Sophie Hickinbottom, Leo Lloyd-Williams, Ida Chamberlain and Thea Kent. Meanwhile, Max Baker and Harry Hannon-Homer gained their first red belts.

In the grades for players under eight years, Jasmine Southern and Emilia Lane both moved to the third level, whilst Nick Deeley was promoted to the second level and there were six players gaining first level, these being Archie Minkin, Woody Grosvenor, Verity Brown, Morgan Edmonds, Finn Doherty and Jorja Mulholland,

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