LEWIS Mills not only won the gold medal at the Rod Lane Senior Open Championships at Samurai Judo Club’s Zortech Avenue, but he also gained the final points he needed to become a black belt.

The son of one of the club’s longest serving coaches, fifth level black belt and World Masters medalist Ian Mills, Lewis, aged 25, played judo as a child but returned with much greater interest a few years ago.

He won his first contest in just 34 seconds, his second contest in just two seconds and 54 seconds to win his third and last match and take the gold in the men’s higher grades under 81 kilos.

He needed just three points to take him to the 100 needed for black belt and so the thirty from the three wins was more than enough.

Also in the men’s higher grades, Dan Matei gained his first points towards his black belt with two good wins which also secured him a bronze medal, whilst Lucas Kent, in the lighter weight group, did not reach the medals but had a good win against a Sheffield player and fought well.

In the men’s lower grades, Ryan Killworth was on excellent form. He started with wins to put himself into the semi-finals where he was caught by a good throw from a Birmingham player. A final win gave him the bronze medal.

Matthew Martin, fresh from his medal at the British Kata championships, competed in his first judo competition for nearly thirty years and, although he did not get into the medals, fought well. Rob Starbuck also just missed out on a medal place in the lower grades heavyweights.

In the ladies’ lower grades, Emma Martin won a bronze in her competition debut however it was in the ladies’ higher grades that the older Samurai girls made their mark.

Sophie Deeming-Lane moved up two weight categories to compete at under 70 kilos and still won all three of her contests against brown belts by maximum points, not only winning the gold medal to taking her to fifty points already towards her black belt, despite only gaining her senior brown two months ago.

Olivia Turner then did the same in the over 70 kilos, despite being far lighter than her opponents, winning three contests by maximum points to take the gold and take her onto sixty points towards her black belt, despite again only having had her senior brown belt for a couple of months. Sophie then added a further silver medal in the ladies’ open category to complete a very good day for the club.

During the men’ section, Olivia Turner was refereeing and successfully passed her senior referee assessment. This now makes four young Samurai referees recently qualified, as she joins Nathan Gallacher, Matt Hemer and Sophie Deeming-Lane as the top young referees in the county, all from Samurai. Becky Hobby, who qualified a year ago, completes the list.