SAMURAI Judo Club hosted another major event when they ran the English Cadet and Pre-Cadet Open Championships at Walsall.

The event, the largest the club has run, attracted more than 400 players from 110 clubs all over the UK, plus teams from Sweden and Spain.

Seventy volunteers from the Samurai club provided almost all of the table officials, the entire control table team, the entire first aid team, camera operators and stewards.

The referees, 30 of them in total, were selected by the National Refereeing Commission but included five Samurai referees.

A British Judo Association official said that the event ran extremely smoothly and added: “No other judo club in Great Britain, and most areas and home countries, could run an event of this magnitude alone.

"Samurai are the only ones with the expertise, the officials in depth and the resources. It is a considerable achievement for a single club to be able to do this.”

Samurai fielded five of their own players at the event.

Despite a foot injury Leah Grosvenor took the gold medal and was even able to focus on a particular aspect of her judo, her transition from standing work to groundwork.

There were 15 players in her weight category, and as number one seed she had a bye in the first round.

The quarter-final and semi-final were both over quickly after she showed her devastating groundwork and the final didn’t last much longer either, being over in considerably less than a minute despite her opponent being in the top five in the British rankings.

The following day, the England Squad had a full-day session, and Dillon Walker and Martin Allen joined the other Samurai players on the mat.

As expected, Leah Grosvenor has been selected for the British team for the European Cadet Championships in Sarajevo in late June.

Leah is still only in the second year of the three-year cadet age band, so she will have another year next year at the event.