Golden girls lead Pinewood
TALENTED youngsters Kiera Bateman and Jade Eccles led Pinewood Judo Club on an impressive medal spree as they turned on the style either end of the country.
The girls split the honours at the Northern Area Open Championships in Bradford last weekend when both reaching the final of the Cadet U48kg group with Kiera edging past her club mate to take gold.
At the same time, Olivia Spellman opened her account with gold in the Cadets at U57kg and then followed with a very impressive silver in the Senior U57kg, only losing the final to a highly ranked GB international fighter by a single penalty.
Jade Eccles earned a bronze medal in the U63 Cadets and Will Mallinkrodt capped a superb day for the Pinewood club, gaining valuable ranking points on his way to gold in the Cadet U73kg.
Will, Kiera and Jade then led Mark Fricker's Pinewood contingent to the two-day Kent Open tournament at Crystal Palace, which featured a number of Dutch and European fighters.
The younger children kicked off proceedings on the Saturday with Tobias Chapman showing some great strides forward in his technical range, winning a bronze at Under 27kg. His efforts were then matched by Under 34kg pair Tobias Trafford and Oliver Young.
Callum Jones fought with his usual guts and determination to take bronze at Under 38kg before Dan Franklin provided a standout performance, ending his recent run of poor form with a blistering display of throws and ground work to take gold at Under 38kg.
Terri Gough, who is now moving from promising novice to reliable winner, took gold at Under 44kg with some no-nonsense Judo, while, in the higher grade B band, Wade Muttitt put together his usual display of stylish judo to take silver, only losing the final in the golden score with a penalty.
Crissie Webb had a good day taking silver at Under 70kg, while Kiera, who was competing in the youth section, took gold at Under 48kg.
Sunday's line-up began with Jade fighting in the youth Under 57kg group. She lost her first fight to a strong Dutch girl but then sharpened her game considerably to win her remaining fights without a mistake to take bronze.
Olivia Spellman competing in the youth section at Under 57kg managed a silver after some gruelling fights, while Will moved up a weight group to fight in the youth section at Under 81kg, yet still took an impressive gold medal.
And Pinewood's weekend was capped by a well-deserved bronze for Chris Thorne, a recent and very welcome addition to the Pinewood Dan grade line up, who showed fine form in the Under 81kg group.