The second day of the “British Championships for Young and Old” was the British Championships For 10 and 11 Year Olds. Like the British Masters Championships the previous day, this was held at the Glades Leisure Centre in Kidderminster and organised by Samurai Judo Club.

There is a strong emphasis on this event being a development event, as the first time many of these players will have experienced a National competition. As part of that development ethos, the refereeing team included eight carefully selected junior referees, most of them either national medallists themselves or very experienced judo players. The table staff also included junior officials and the camera operators were entirely juniors. The junior officials acquitted themselves extremely well and the junior referees were outstanding.

As a taster of yet another pathway in judo available to young players, there was a demonstration of nage no kata at the start and finish of the day by the current British Junior Kata Champions, Darcie Hancocks and Leah Grosvenor, from the Samurai club. Both girls were refereeing during the day as well and, to show that kata is for competitors, both girls took medals at this competition last year and the year before. Darcie, in fact, is one of only two British players ever to win gold at both the British Junior National Championships and the British Junior Kata Championships.

The fighting was soon underway. As last year, the organisers had committed to each player getting at least three contests, so pools into knockout was the system used. There were lots of fine throws from players who will hopefully have a great future in judo. Soon we were ready for the finals. Before the finals there was a medallists parade, with flag bearers of all the four home countries plus the union flag that go to make up Great Britain.

After the finals, the medals were presented by the junior referees.

The organisers would like to thank all of the referees, table staff, control table staff, first aiders, the refreshments team and all those who helped bring the mats in and take them back afterwards. It was a massive team effort, but all worth it in the end.

Photographs are available from www.dephoto.biz/samuraijudo and also from the gallery at www.samurai.org.uk/gallery.

Words by Andrew Haffner.