Mike Goodwin (centre) and Peter Childs (right) looking exhausted after their title fight. (0604471)
GUERNSEY’S six-strong contingent brought home three medals from the South of England Judo Championships in Portsmouth.
Standards were high with all of the BJA Southern Area counties represented, as well as a number of London clubs and also players from the midlands and eastern areas.
Star performer for the Guernsey squad was Peter Childs who won gold in the boys’ under-42 kilos event. There was also a silver for fellow Guernsey Judo Club member Mike Goodwin in the same category, while Chris Quevatre of Judo Frascati claimed a bronze in the boys’ under-66 kilos section.
The fight of the day was undoubtedly the all-Sarnian gold-silver contest, Childs and Goodwin both already having won two hard fought and keenly contested fights to get into the final. Coach Mitch Agnelli was delighted with their performances.
‘To have one contender in the final from Guernsey given the large number of entrants would have been good, but to have two from the one club is exceptional.
‘Although only having a small island catchment area, Guernsey is clearly able to hold its own at county level, even against far larger UK clubs.’
Their final was close.
The initial two-minute bout was a draw, each
having scored the same amount of points during the allotted time.
This necessitated a ‘golden score’ play-off.
But even that was drawn and ultimately the winner had to be decided by the three judges.
That was close, too, but at 2-1 in his favour, Childs took gold.
Quevatre’s efforts were made even more commendable by the fact that he had not eaten for more than a day through illness.
The Plevin brothers, Laurence and Louis, aged 9 and 11, both had to fight in the under-12 and under-16 categories respectively. But despite their age handicap both put up excellent performances and by next year they will both be bigger and stronger and should give a good account of themselves.
Remi Dorey was the unluckiest of all, having had four hard contests, one of which was against his club mate, Lawrence Plevin, who had defeated Remi in the recent CI Championship.
This time Dorey turned the tables on his old adversary and won the bout.
Unfortunately his next fight was for the bronze medal and, fatigued, he lost by the narrowest of margins.
Seniors Angelo Dorey and Alex Mann, members of the Island Games judo squad and who both competed in Rhodes, continued to show good progress which bodes well for Aland in 12 months’ time.
The experience gained at this tournament should encourage more of the local judoka to prepare for the next visit to Portsmouth in October for the Hampshire Split Grade Championships.
Article posted on 12th July, 2008 - 9.29am
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