A sixteen-strong Japanese team competed in the Junior World Championships on the 22nd-25th October in Paris and bagged an impressive fourteen medals.

With a total of eight gold medals, one silver and five bronze, the Japanese federation were by far the front runners of the Championships. Taking second place in the medal table was Ukraine with one gold medal and two silver medals.

The British Team were depleted with injury and only 5 players competed in the Championships - two medallists from last year’s competition were unable to compete. The Brits along with 26 other countries finished with no medals to show.

Owen Livesey (-73kg) and Samantha Clark (-52kg) both lost their first fight of the competition, Livesey to an Austrian by ippon score and Clark to Frey from Switzerland respectively.

Gary Hall put in a good performance, and was not fazed at making his debut at this event. After a bye in the first round, Hall progressed to the second round and beat Blazej Mielcarek of Poland by ippon in a strong competitive fight.

Fighting for a place in the quarter final, Hall was drawn up against Mohamed aly Abdelall of Egypt. Gary was unable to contain a flurry of attacks and was caught twice on ground with hold- downs, and lost by two waza-ari scores and a yuko.

Both Louise Little (-78kg) and Luke Taylor (-90kg) both had byes in the first round. Little then faced Ha-Na Shim of Korea and managed to sustain her attacks and get her opponent a passivity warning. However she could not take advantage and near the last minute of the contest ran out of steam and was thrown for ippon.

Taylor fought Alex Garcia Mendoza of Cuba. Both players received passivity warning before Taylor was then penalised twice for holding off Mendoza, before being caught by left taiotoshi for waza-ari and losing on a compound score overall.

New refereeing rules were tested at the World event, which was decided upon at the IJF Executive Committee meeting in Rotterdam last month. These new rules included having only one referee, the immediate sanction of direct attacks on one or both hands or with one or both arms below the belt.

Also travelling with the team was Gemma Howell who sustained an injury earlier this year, putting her out of this year’s Championships. Howell got the chance to observe the British team and her -57kg rivals, including Hedvig Karakas who took the gold medal.

Karakus, also 19 years of age, has some impressive results including Senior World and European Championship bronze medals. Howell beat Karakas at the Junior Polish ‘A’ Tournament earlier this year and will be keen to fight her again next year when she moves up to the senior level.

Commenting on the team’s performance, Lead Development Coach Kate Howey said: “There were some good performances and some performances that could have been better.

“The players had to adapt to the new rules being tested and overall they performed well. There was a lot more stand up judo resulting in more ippons.

“It was hard for the players to adapt to the new leg rule, but we will now work on that in their training and on getting in the big throws.

“Our three injured players that travelled with the team to the Championships found it really beneficial to see the new rules in play and were able to see where they are at and where they need to be. They will return next year, fighting fit and ready to contest some of the medallists at this event that they have previously beaten”.

Media Contact:

Nicola Turner

British Judo

(t) 01509 631695

nicola.turner@britishjudo.org.uk

Gary Hall

©David Finch

  Owen Livesey

©David Finch