British judoka including members of the GB Special Needs Judo team stepped on the mat at the prestigious 7th Dutch Open Championship Special Needs Judo 2015 on Saturday 21 November in Venray, Netherlands.

The ten British competitors included Christopher Murphy, 2015 Special Olympics silver medallist, and Thomas Mawdsley, 2015 BJA Inclusion Player of the Year and saw British athletes competing across a number of different weight categories and all putting in credible performances.

However the highlight was undoubtedly Christopher Murphy’s gold medal in the -81kg category. The Glasgow judoka won gold in Venray last year and had recently added the British title to his medal collection. He continued his fine run of form as he saw off Dutch athlete Ryan Roos in his opening contest.

In the final he took on another Dutch judoka in Mick Beltman and yet again it was the British fighter who took the contest and went away with another gold medal.

Looking back on the day Murphy said: “After being absent from the last two Dutch Opens and the Shenshu International it was great be back competing and winning. I would like to thank my squad coaches who give up their precious time and training coaches for their encouragement. It was a perfect ending to my competitions this year.”

He was joined on the podium by a number of his teammates including Thomas Mawdsley (-66kg) who won silver, matching his result from 2014, and Mikey Lomas (-90kg) who took bronze in a strong category that also saw fellow British judoka Simon Kirk and Richard Goodall finish in fifth.

There was also a British second and third in the +100kg category as David Woodland and Stuart Jackman fought their way to the podium. After defeating Michael Van Der Male in his first contest, Woodland knocked out fellow Brit Andrew Smith in the semi-finals putting into the gold medal match.

The final however would prove to be a step too far as Dutch fighter Tim Rietveld took gold. Teammate Jackman had lost his first fight to Rietveld which put him into the repechage where he got the better of Smith to move into the bronze medal match.

There a win over Hessel Smith was gave Jackman another medal to add to his collection for 2015.

Speaking afterwards Jackman said:

“This was my first year competing and had Tim Rietveld, previous Special Olympic champion as my first fight. I beat him for silver at the European Open in April this year but he beat me this time round.

“I wasn’t going all that way not to medal so fought hard and in the end won the bronze medal match by ippon. It marks the end of a good year where I won my first SN British Open Gold.

“Next up is the European SN Open in Beverwijk,  Holland next April and I hope to be selected for GB and then go one better than the silver I won this year.”