Golden joy for Samurai duo (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Golden joy for Samurai duo

8:00am Saturday 23rd February 2013 in Local

LAUREN Fletcher and Ruth Tilt took gold medals at Samurai Judo Club’s Open Championships for low grades.

Twenty clubs took part in the tournament but it was the Kidderminster club who dominated as they also picked up two silvers and a massive haul of 14 bronzes.

Fletcher, still in her first year in judo, had four maximum point wins against players from Leicester, Gloucester, Wolverhampton and a Samurai club-mate to reach the final against an opponent from Gloucestershire.

The final was a closer match, but the Samurai starlet took the lead early on and kept it to the end to take the gold.

Tilt defeated two of her club-mates and a Kettering girl to reach the final against another fighter from Gloucestershire.

This time the result was more emphatic, as Tilt threw her opponent in only 11 seconds for maximum points to take the gold.

Maddi Averill nearly made it three golds for the Samurai girls.

Maximum point wins against opponents from Kettering and two from Wolverhampton steered her into the final of her category, but a throw from a Welsh girl meant that she had to settle for silver.

Olivia Turner, competing in her first competition, Charlotte Spokes and Ellie Griffiths also added bronzes for the girls. There were a lot of new Samurai faces taking part, including a number who have only just reached the minimum age of eight.

Daniel Walker, Ciaran Kealey, Sam Hewitt, Dillon Walker, Evan Turner, Callum Spencer and in the older section Reece Bourne all marked their debuts with bronzes, and there were also third places for Kieran Gallacher, Callum Fletcher, Luke Talbot and Luke Haynes.

The best chance for a boys gold came with Alex Gardnerbut he lost to in the final to a player from Stroud.