Three Islington judoka from the Sobell Judo Club travelled to Thessaloniki, Greece with the JFAUK National Judo Team to take part in the 2017 Miyazaki International Cup.
The tournament drew elite judoka (judo ‘players’) from nine different countries, with the British judoka coming away with six medals.
Sobell’s Sam Charalambous was the one to watch on the day as he was on perfect form, storming through his category with clean throw after clean throw to take the gold medal in the men’s 75kg category.
Alexis Bardini followed that in the men’s 71kg with some fine performances took him to the final against a host competitor.
Unfortunately the greek judoka managed to get the better of Bardini this time, leaving him with the silver medal.
The final Islington judoka of the day was Sam Sampson who was competing in the men’s 79kg category.
He progressed through his category with textbook technique before meeting a Bulgarian in the final.
And although it was an extremely close fight that went the distance, the Bulgarian managed to take the win on points, giving Sampson the silver medal.
Also competing was Jason Baird from Dundee who took silver in the Veterans 79kg and Ross Elliot from Worthing who won gold in the mens 100kg.
He also claimed a bronze in the Men’s Open weight.
Sobell Judo Club trains on Monday and Wednesday at the Sobell Leisure Centre.
For more information go to www.sobelljudoclub.com
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