Some of
the Black Dragons squad team competed in the 5th golden belt tournament
on July 3rd in Coventry with 9 of our squad performing very well.
First on
the mat was Nathan Coleman who came against his biggest rival Chris
Andrews in the – 145cm section, Nathan had lost the last 4 times
they have met this time Nathan had worked him out and the result was
a comfortable win for Nathan, he then sailed into the Finale and could
not be stopped, making the tally so far in the golden belt this year
with 2 wins and 1 second place.
Next up
was the – 155cm section with both Louise Nelson and Tom Smart,
Tom was first up against a very good opponent and failed to get into
the fight until the end with the result in Tom losing out, Louise
was next winning all her fights with skill showing other competitors
why she has won 3 out of 3 so far Louise is now in the position to
fight off for the Golden belt in August which carry’s a value
of £1500, Louise will have her work cut out as she will have
to fight off against other junior section winners but if she wins
it she will be the first ever Junior to win the Golden Belt.
The +155
section then started with Rachel Muress, Ben Smart and Callum Thompson.
First up
was Rachel who was drawn against the series leader this was one of
the closest fights of the day when the final bell was rang it was
a draw so extra time was added with both fighters not giving an inch
Rachel was caught out and lost by 1 point this was Rachel’s first
golden belt and I think she has shown all that she will be a force
to watch for. Callum Thompson had a good first fight with excellent
techniques winning comfortable however his next fight was a different
story fighting against WUMA’s champion Scott Andrews a very good
fight with the win going to Ryan.
Ben Smart
was fighting with a lot of confidence on the day eventually drawing
Ryan Andrews in the semi finale this time it was Andrews who lost
out as Ben won taking him to the Finale, the finale was a battle with
Ben taking second place and well deserved.
Ladies
Next with the –60kg section Karen Sutton Drawing against last
years Golden Belt champion Grace Jenkins, Grace having a height advantage
could not work Karen out and ended up losing to Karen, the finale
was a repeat of the last Golden belt finale but this time the out
come was reversed as Karen took 2nd place against windrush Amanda
Menzies.
Men’s
–65kg Idris Williams had probably the best battle of the day
both competitors in the semi finale scored point for point the finale
bell saw a draw extra time was added to see yet another draw, so to
sudden death the first to score wins some minutes went on then Idris
made a mistake and with that came the point for his opponent Idris
had to then fight for 3rd place and this time made no mistake winning
3rd place with speed.
Lastly
for the Dragons was the – 75kg section with squad coach Pete
Cook this being his third Golden belt this year, Going into this tournament
a win would mean that cook would be leading the points into the finales
in August with that in mind cook had a slow start but soon got into
the swing with his last fight seeing a score of 6 points to 0 and
taking yet another Katana Sword and 10 points to lead the points table
in his section.
