SAMURAI Judo Club's contingent of three players at the London Open Championships all bagged a medal to make their trip down south worthwhile.

James Harrison looks a different class in his own age band and won all of his contests by maximum points.

Having recently taken gold at the Southern Area Open, he continued his preparations for the forthcoming English Minors Open with another demolition of all his opponents to take gold.

In his own age band, James has not lost a contest since last July, including the British Minors Nationals which he won last October.

Harry Ashen also won gold at the British Minors Nationals in October, and he too took gold at London, winning his final with a good hold-down after gaining an early score.

He is also gearing up for the English Minors, which he won last year.

The best performance of the day came from the third Samurai player, current British Schools Champion Jake Ashen. He had a very tough category but good wins in his first two contests took him into the semi-final where he fought one of the best contests of the tournament.

He and his opponent from the south of England traded attacks throughout the three minute contest, James looked perhaps the more likely to score until he conceded a low score with just nine seconds to go.

With no time to equalize, he had to accept defeat which left him with one more contest for the bronze.

He won this with a throw whilst the player who beat him in the semi-final comfortably won the final and took the gold.

Meanwhile, a limited grades competition held at the Samurai’s Zortech Avenue premises saw the club win a dozen medals, including golds for James Harrison and Rhea Turner.

In the boys low grades, Edward Martin was first up to compete in the lightweights and he took a bronze, Harry Hannon-Homer secured silver and Alex Spencer bagged a bronze.

Scott Hulbert reached the final of his category with a series of maximum point wins but lost to a physically stronger Birmingham player in the final. Joe Blanchfield took bronze in the same category. Luke Jahromi was the last of the boys lower grades to compete, and he added another bronze.

In the girls lower grades, Ida Chamberlain was making her competition debut and won a bronze, whilst in the middle weights Sophie Davis added another silver to her collection, losing to a much more experienced Wolverhampton player in the final.

In the boys higher grades section, James Harrison looked unstoppable and highly skilled.

He had four contests and won them all with a range of maximum point scores from throws, all four contests being won within the first thirty seconds.

The final against a Swindon player lasted just eight seconds before James won with a spectacular throw.

Harry Ashen was also competing in the boys higher grades, but was up against much older players. Two wins took him into the final, where he lost to a Birmingham player and so had to settle for silver.

In the girls higher grades, Rhea Turner reached the final with three maximum point wins from a mixture of throws and holds. The final, against a Welsh girl, was just 22 seconds old when Rhea threw her opponent for maximum points to take the gold medal. Meghann O’Sullivan added a bronze in the same weight category.