Warwick Judo triumphant at Nationals

In arguably the most successful tournament that the Judo Club has ever competed in, Warwick athletes came home on Sunday 20th of November with six medals including four gold medals.

Head Coach Thomas Grandjean achieved a silver medal in the under-73kg Dan-Grade (black belt) category, winning all but his final fight where he faced a full time national squad member. Women’s Team Captain Sophie Cox beat a more experienced opponent to win gold in the Women’s under-57kg category, becoming National Champion for the first time.

Sophie was joined by Daniel Offen, who won Gold in the under-90 Kyu (non-black belts) category and Matthew Havard, who in his first competition for Warwick also won gold in under-66 Kyu grades.

Elsewhere, Rustam Sethna had an unlucky day as he fought in one of the most difficult categories, losing all three of his fights. He fought valiantly and will hope to do better next time. Pete Wing had an eventful competition, being disqualified for an unfortunate misstep in his first fight, before losing the second after a marginal call by the referee.

Antoine Rémond-Tiedrez showed just how much the new Warwick Sport Focus Club fitness regimen has paid off, having to replay his pool three times for a total of nine fights on the day. Despite this, he still came out with a silver medal in the end! The impressive David Ooi retained his National Championship with a great display of Judo, winning Gold for the second year in a row.

With a total of four gold medals and two silvers, plus the two silver medals and a bronze medal won the day before, the Judo Club has proved just how good they really are. With such a great start to the year, the team are in high spirits ahead of the London Universities Senior Open championships and the Warwick Invitational Tournament, later in the academic year.