Good week for home nations at Commonwealths
Home nations judoka enjoyed a bumper week at the Commonwealth Judo Championships in Port Elizabeth, South Africa from 24 to 28 April winning 72 medals in total with Guernsey also picking up three medals.
English judoka took home 14 gold medals including Junior and Senior doubles for Olivia Piechota (-48kg), Acelya Toprak (-57kg), Rhys Thompson (-100kg) and Wesley Greenidge (+100kg). There were further Junior golds for Aiden Donald (-81kg) and Charlotte Newbold (+78kg) with Sally Moon (-78kg) adding to that tally at Seniors.
There were also Masters gold medals for Ronda Crompton-Reid (30-39 +78kg), Gavin Jon Archibald (45-49 -81kg) and Ashley Parette (50-54 -90kg).
Northern Ireland and Wales both picked up five gold medals across a range of ages including a Cadet and Junior double for NI judoka Kirstie McCallion at +70kg and +78kg with Paul Green also picking up a Masters gold for Northern Ireland at 45-49 -90kg. Joshua Green (-60kg) and Matthew Elliott (-66kg) were Northern Ireland’s other gold medallists both in the Cadet weight categories.
For Wales there were Senior gold medals for Jade Lewis (-52kg) and Connor Ireland (-73kg), both of whom had competed at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. There was also a trio of Cadet gold medallists in Jasmine Hacker-Jones (-52kg), Chloe Jones (-57kg) and Holly Jones (-63kg).
For Scotland Olivia Reid (-48kg), Abigael Mcbeath (-63kg) and John Raymond Thacker (50-59 -81kg) all came away with gold medals at Cadet, Junior and Masters respectively.
The three Guernsey medals were shared between Michele Agnelli (60-64, +70 -81kg) who took a silver medal in the Masters and Louis Plevin who took bronze in both the Junior and Senior -81kg category.
Full results from the Commonwealth Judo Championships can be found here: http://www.commonwealthjudo.net/news/results-2016commonwealthjudochampionships