Battling bronze for Ely’s Noah

Judo Ely’s Noah Aldous came away with a bronze medal from the Eastern Area Championships held in Norfolk at the weekend.

Noah, 12, entered the championships in the under 42 kg weight group – pitting him against fighters from across the region aged between 12 and 16.

Having scored a yuko, worth three points, with a counter throw he lost his first fight in the last seconds of the four-minute contest when his own attack was countered with a strong osoto-gari which scored his opponent 10 points.

Noah’s second fight was a tough contest that was still without a score after the four-minute clock. The contest then entered golden score time - with the first player to make any score then given the win. After a further two hard minutes Noah finally put in a successful attack with tani-otoshi and won the fight.

In Noah’s last contest, having scored three points with a standing technique, his opponent then managed to hold Noah down with kesa-gatame a holding technique - scoring ippon and putting Noah out of the contest.

However, Noah’s win in the second round secured him a bronze medal.

Noah said: “It was my first entry in the 12-16 age group and I am really pleased with being placed in the medals at bronze. The standard was very high and it was some of the toughest judo I have faced at competition so far.”

Littleport Judo club meet every Tuesday evening. For further information go to www.littleport-judo.org