The nation’s best judoka and potential future Olympians descended on the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield this weekend for the British Championships for Juniors. Athletes from around the country took to the tatami in their respective categories to fight for the prestigious title of British Champion and to win a place on the British squad, ahead of the Olympic qualification period for Rio 2016.

Saturday’s Junior Championships produced some excellent judo from reliable players as well as seeing some strong players rise up through the ranks and today, (Sunday) will see many of them return to the mat to battle for a senior title too.

The Junior Women’s -63kg category was extremely exciting to watch – a group populated with strong of athletes with Lucy Renshall, Lubjana Piovesana, Prisca Awiti Alcaraz among others in action. In the end, Renshall of Warrington Warjukwai took the -63kg Championship title having beaten World Cadet bronze medallist Lubjana Piovesana of Bishop Challoner to gain a gold medal and win by a single shido. On her route to gold, Renshall also beat Lucy King and Elish Walker by ippon. Renshall improved on last year’s result of bronze at both junior and senior level and is the 2012 British U20 Champion.

Speaking of her journey to gold, she said: “I had several fights but my best one was undoubtedly the final.

“I am going to try my best tomorrow and I tend to find that I usually fight better because I don’t feel the pressure as much.”

Piovesana who came second in her first pool and then won the second to get into the final four, had some memorable fights.

In one she caught Prisca-Awiti-Alcaraz for ippon during golden score. The 16-year-old earned a place on the Junior squad in January of this year by gaining a bronze medal. She will also be competing in the Women’s -63kg category at today’s Senior Championships.

Speaking about her medal, she said: “I feel really happy to win silver this year. It felt great to face a player I have never beaten in a score and feel satisfied that the only match I lost was on penalties to Lucy.”

“I’m looking forward to competing with the seniors, as I’ve got nothing to lose so I am just going to enjoy it and test myself to see what I can do.”

Under 57kg was another exciting category which saw Bekky Livesey of S.K.K end the day as Junior British Champion. Kirsty Powell of WJA Academy gained a silver medal, with Jodie Caller (Renzoku) and Natalie Boyle of Azami Falkirk getting bronze. For 18-year-old Bekky, gaining a gold medal at this level tops off an excellent year.

The past 12 months she seen her participate in the Junior World and European Championships and consistently medalled and placed in various European Cups. She was U20 British Champion last year and silver medallist the year before. But not content with this, she will also compete with the seniors today.

“I feel very happy to win and I also look forward to competing for at the senior championships as here, there is no real pressure on me to perform and I can enjoy it.”

In other results, Olivia Piechota of Harris took the -44kg title. Molly Harvey of Tonbridge by ippon. Harvey took the silver medal. The -48kg Junior British Champion for 2013 was Hayley Willis. Silver medallist was Harkirat Sekhon and there were bronze accolades for Aimee Grant and Eve Mikhael. Natasha Fraser beat Chelsie Giles to become -52kg Junior British Champion as Giles settled for silver.

Meanwhile, Jade Lewis and Charlotte Emery were joint bronze medallists. Redbridge’s Emma Reid won the women’s -70kg category, beating Ebony Drysdale-Daley (Erdington), who took silver.

Rachel Moon (Wolverhampton) and Lauren Hawkins (Westcroft) got the bronze medals.

Meanwhile, her twin Sally won at -78kg triumphing over Shermane Henlon.

Bronze went to Charlotte Newbold (Redbridge) and Kelly-Marie Dean of Micklefield.

S.K.K’s Jodie Myers also proved she has what it takes to become Champion of the women’s +78kg category.

Michelle Boyle secured silver while Kelly Wright gained bronze. Joe Young of Ryecroft won the title in the -55kg category as Billy Goldsmith (Tonbridge) took silver.

Bronze medals went to Scott Thompson (Danderhall and Destination) and Connor Potts (Goole). Sam Hall of Rycroft triumphed at -60kg with a win over JudoScotland’s Neil McDonald.

George Goldsmith (Tonbridge) and Keiran Gehlan (JSJ Alloa) got bronze. Yoshin Ryu’s Thomas Johnson beat Glossop’s Eric Ham to -66kg gold as Ham settled for silver.

Aiden Moffat of Tayside and Adam Khalik gained bronze.

Ham who won bronze last week at Cadet level was pleased to match his record from last year and come away with another silver medal. He said: “I feel really chuffed. Last week I went away feeling like I could have performed better and now I feel that I have achieved that in winning silver. Going forward I will be looking to be selected for the European Championships in June.”

And it was gold and silver for WJA Academy. Connor Ireland became-73kg British Champion after beating fellow clubmate Mason Jones.

Bronze medals were awarded to Stuart McWatt and Sebastian Green.

Meanwhile, Ford’s Matthew Kavanagh was victorious at -81kg and became Junior British Champion.

Jamal Petgrave of Westcroft gained silver, and there were bronze medals for Enfield’s Rys Thompson and Jidel’s Oscar Di Domenco.

Petgrave, who also won a gold medal at the Cadet’s championships last week, said:

“I am pleased with my result but obviously I would have liked to have got another gold.

“There are things to work on and next nationals we will work on getting the next medal up. It’s been a good year for me I was selected to go to the Youth Olympics.”

 Under 90kg Junior British Champion was George Smith.

Liam Donkin secured silver and bronzes went to Mark Greaves of Bradford and Ari Aristidou of S.K.K Moberly’s John Jayne took the -100kg British title.

It was silver for Charles Grocock of Huddersfield and bronze for Maksim Bajunov of R2 and Thomas Alberts of Beach.

Over 100kg gold went to Edinburgh’s Valentino Volante who beat Joshua Burns of Shandsworth for silver and Matthew Bratton of Cedars and William Todd of JSC for bronze.

Team GB’s lead coach for the women, Kate Howey said: “Players will be tired tomorrow as they end a long year but the opportunity to become British Champion as we enter into an Olympic qualification year in May is exciting and should spur them on.

“Today, we have seen a lot of promising juniors push up through the ranks at -57kg.

Bekky Livesey who won today is a strong player competed at the Junior World Championships and now adds the title of Junior British Champion to her record and she will also compete at senior level.

“We have a Cadet bronze medallist in Lubjana Piovesana, who will also be trying to make a step up to senior level.

“Not only that but we have an interesting mix of younger and older players. It will be very interesting to see who comes out on top to form the British squad for next year.”

Men’s Lead Coach for GB, Chris Bowles added: “I thought that the judo today was of a really high standard. It was really inspiring to see the juniors performing to the level that they did.

“For me there have been some outstanding performances. The -66kg category was astonishing and looking towards the next competition, I certainly think that the junior players will produce a few shocks. The senior players better be prepared.

“Right now junior players are in an inspiring system. Watching the judo today – both the young men and the young women, was great. Our seniors are going to have a hard time of it.

“These competitions do push our players from cadet to junior and junior to senior.

The Junior to senior competitions are very important because of the transition to 2016 and for the future of British Judo beyond to 2020.”

Dennis Stewart, Lead Coach at the Centre of Excellence who is currently helping those transition athletes towards that journey said:

“The -60kgs men’s category was very good to watch. Neil MacDonald may have lost to Sam Hall in the final, but for me that was a stand-out match. MacDonald really showed his strength and proved that he is definitely one to watch in the future.”

Last week during the Cadet Championships, MacDonald took the -60kg title with a win over Daniel Powell (Wolverhampton).

Matt Divall, England Programme Manager, added: “It was a great day at the British Junior Championships in Sheffield. There were some surprises with plenty of ippons and some outstanding performances.

“Last week saw cadets push the juniors, and now it will be a chance for the juniors to push the seniors.”

For a full list of results click here.

Words by Donna Richardson. Images Mike Varey.