The final day of an exciting two weeks of judo at the British Championships came to a close on Sunday as the Senior judoka took to the mat in the hunt for medals.
Acelya Toprak (Metro) and Shelley Ludford (Osaka) celebrated double success over the weekend as they completed a Junior and Senior double in the -57kg and -78kg categories respectively.
Jemima Yeats-Brown has made a remarkable return to the mat after long-term injury. She claimed Gold in the -70kg as the Ryecroft judoka defeated Wolverhampton’s Gemma Howell in an enthralling final.
Lucy Renshall (SKK) celebrated successive Senior titles with victory in the -63kg competition. She was pushed all of the way by NHC’s Olivia Spellman. Earlier in the day, Spellman topped the Nash brothers’ epic ten minute contest with victory in an astonishing seventeen minute encounter with Verity Stephens in a Pool stage match. The contest drew a standing ovation from all in the arena in appreciation of the judoka’s efforts!
With one of the ippons of the day, Dan Powell threw Danny Williams (Camberley) with aplomb to progress through to the final where he came up against fellow GB team mate Eric Ham (Glossop). It was a close contest, as expected between the two fighters. Both are looking to make the transition up into Senior level competition following impressive junior careers. It was Powell who took the win following a single waza-ari that handed him the Gold and forced Ham to settle for silver.
Peter Miles (Bradley Stoke) repeated his 2016 heroics by winning his second British title in the -66kg with victory over Lash Lekishvili (Camberley) in the final. Camberley filled out the rest of the rostrum with James Martin and Jack Barnes both claiming bronze medals.
There were notable performances from a range of athletes including the likes of Jamal Petgrave (-90kg), Chelsie Giles (-52kg), Andrew Melbourne (+100kg), Kimberley Renicks (-48kg) and Sam Hall (-60kg) who all claimed Gold medals in their respective weight categories.
