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Glossop Judo Club fighters bring home medals

20 June 2008

He was among the competitors from the club who took part in both the 10th International Creative Graz Tournament in Austria, and The Venray International in the Netherlands.

In Austria, more than 1,600 competitors took part, travelling from 20 countries including Slovenia, Hungary, The Netherlands, Germany, Croatia, Belgium, Slovakia, Italy, Poland and Bulgaria and representing 163 judo clubs from around Europe.

Glossop’s Eric Ham was first up in the boys under 30 kg section, and won his first three fights in style to reach the final against the Austrian National Champion.

Both fighters were evenly matched with the fight going into a two minute extra time period. With six seconds to go, and clearly well ahead on points, Eric was caught with a small score and had to be happy with a well deserved Silver Medal.

Next up was Ryan Phillips, who was up against many of Europe’s finest under 40 kg fighters and was unlucky to be held down by a classy Austrian in the first round.

Also competing was Sam Hall, who won three of his first four fights before narrowly missing out on a bronze medal.

All three fighters represented Glossop and the High Peak with pride and made many new friends along the way. Eric and Sam then stayed on to attend a four-day training camp.

Eric was also among the winners at The Venray International, competing along with Glossop Judo Club’s Rhiannon Baldwin, Sam Hall, Fay Hall and Jess Hall.

They were among more than 1,700 competitors from 27 different countries which took part.

Fighting in a large group of 28 children, Eric beat opponents from The Netherlands, Belgium and Latvia to reach the final against the same opponent he had lost to the previous week in Austria. Sadly for him the result was the same, although very close, and Eric returned home with a creditable Silver Medal.

Also scooping a silver medal was Fay Hall, while Rhiannon Baldwin won a bronze medal in the under 44 kg girls section.

In the same section Jess Hall finished 5th place.

Last to compete was 2007 National Judo Champion Sam Hall, in a group of 62. Sam impressed beating many larger opponents to win his first three fights, and eventually finished 7th place. Sam hopes to retain his title of national champion 2008 later in the year.

For further details visit www.Glossopjudoclub.co.uk (opens in a new window)