THE British Judo Open Kata Championships was held at Samurai Judo Club recently and saw the host club dominate the event with pairs taking two gold medals, a silver and three bronzes.

Under the eye of Britain’s top kata judges, the Wyre Forest club took the gold medal in the senior nage no kata, the kata of throwing techniques, with Sam Bravo and Laura Dangerfield.

This kata involves 15 throws, all of which have to be done on both the right and the left.

In the junior section of this kata, Samurai took gold again, this time with Darcie Hancocks and Leah Grosvenor.

This pair are outstanding contest players, and in fact ended up facing each other in the final of the British National Championships in fighting judo last December, as well as winning a whole string of national and international medals.

Hancocks becomes only the second British judo player ever to hold the titles of both the British Championships in fighting judo and the British Kata Championships at the same time.

Samurai also took both bronzes in the junior nage no kata, with Ellie Arnull and Toni Poulsom finishing third and brothers Matt and James Hemer claiming the second bronze in fourth place.

Matt and James also did an excellent demonstration of gonosen no kata, the slow motion kata of throws and counters.

Two more Samurai pairs, Sophie Deeming-Lane and Lauren Fletcher, and Jamie Silwood and Spencer Benton, finished just outside the medals in fifth and sixth place respectively, giving Samurai an impressive domination of the category.

There was also a younger juniors nage no kata section, and sisters Lily and Bonnie Deenming-Lane taking bronze.

Hancocks and Grosvenor were also back on the mat for the katame no kata, the kata of groundwork techniques.

For this they reverse roles, with Grosvenor taking the lead, and they only narrowly missed making it double gold when they finished in second place to a pair from Portsmouth.

Dangerfield partnered head coach Andrew Haffner for the esoteric ju no kata. However, they faced tough opposition, including the pair who finished fourth in the World Championships not long ago, and finished just outside the medals in fourth place.