Golds Galore for Samurai at Leinster

The season just keeps getting better for Samurai Uladh Judo Club as they returned from this weekend’s Leinster Open with a medal haul of 24 medals (12 Gold, 6 Silver and 6 Bronze).

The competition, which was held over two days, boasted a strong field of opposition for the judo club but the Juniors, Seniors and Masters got the proceedings off to a good start with some strong performances on the first day.

There was a hard fought competition in the Junior Men U55kgs category with 2 Samurai Players aiming for gold.   Stevie McLaughlin and Gareth Townley put 100% effort into their fights and pulled some beautiful throws out of the bag.  Stevie eventually took Gold with Gareth narrowly missing out on second place and taking away a Bronze.

The boys took part in the Cadet Men U55kgs the following day and with an excellent display of judo skill from both boys, it was no surprise that they met in the final.  After a tough contest Stevie was again the recipient of the Gold with Gareth taking Silver, an improvement on his result of the day before.

In Junior Men U60kgs Michael McCay beat every other competitor in this category with the highest score possible, an ippon, to claim Gold in his section.  He then went on to compete in the second day of the event where he medaled again with a Bronze.

Kathleen McNaught fought in 3 categories on the Saturday.  She showed how her judo has stepped up a gear and ploughed through the opposition to win Gold in the Junior Women U63/U70kgs combined, Silver in Senior Women U63/U70kgs combined and Silver in the Women Upper Kyu where she had to fight girls from various weight categories.

The final club representatives on the first day of competition were the Senior and Masters Men and Club Coach Paul Green participated in both categories.  After many tough fights Paul won 2 medals for his club, Silver in the Senior Men U100kgs and Gold in the Masters U100kgs category, needless to say his players were very proud.

Clive Roylance flew through his opposition to take Gold in O81kgs Masters to great applause and the club’s newest 1st Dan Manus O’Donnell fought well to win a bronze in U81kgs Masters.

With a lot to live up to the Clubs Minors and Cadets took to the mat on the second day of competition and they did not disappoint.

Pearse Jordan competed in the lightest Minor Boys weight of U25kgs and triumphed with Gold from quite a big category, his sister Jodie was also awarded the Gold in Cadet Women U40kgs.  Callum Green claimed Bronze in Minor Men U34kgs from a substantial field of competitors, losing out to some more experienced players.

In the Minor Men U37kgs it was another tense final as yet again 2 Samurai players beat the rest of the competition to meet in the fight for Gold.  With some beautiful judo from both Callum Nash and Joshua Green on show, it was a close match and Callum came out victorious with Gold and Joshua the Silver.

Oisin McLaughlin was relentless in his category and claimed Gold in Minor Men O50kgs and it seemed that no one was going to beat him that day.

In Cadet Men the medal winning trend was continued by Tiarnan McGilloway who won all his fights and took Gold in the U45kgs and Colm MacCionnaith brought back a Bronze in the next category up of U50kgs.

The girls also put on a great show of strength in some difficult Minor Women categories.  There were Bronzes for Sarah Jane Porter in U30kgs and Eva Conaghan in U33kgs.  While Sinead Harnett fought up a storm to take a well deserved Silver in O44kgs.

Needless to say Coaches, Seamus Gallagher, Paul Green and Donna Nash, are delighted with the performances from Samurai Uladh.  It reflects all the hard work that the Coaches and Players put into the Club and everyone is looking forward to improving the results in the Irish Open next weekend.