Golden haul for judo clubs - May 2016
Home advantage worked for Whanganui's two judo clubs as their members picked up a combined 30 medals at the North Wellington Judo Open, held at Wanganui High School at the weekend.
City College Judo's Finn Brown backed up his recent third in the under 73kg division at the Oceania Championships in Canberra by winning both the junior men's and senior men's gold.
Former WHS student Brown now has the No1 national ranking for the junior men's division and No2 for the senior men at under 73kg.
He also got the silver for the junior men's open, with clubmate and former WHS student Andrew Kinchella claiming bronze.
Liam Goodhall likewise finished the weekend with a national No1 ranking after winning gold in the junior men's under 90kg, while he also won the junior men's over 100kg grade.
Wanganui Judo Club's cousins Kasey and Keightley Watson (both WHS students) won gold in the cadet under 73kg and over 81kg divisions respectively.
They then met each other in the cadet open weight, where older cousin Kasey took the gold in a close fought battle.
As well as his cadet open weight silver, Keightley won silver in the junior men's over 100kg division.
There were other multiple medallists.
City College's Andrew Kinchella won double gold in the junior and senior men's under 66kg, as did veteran Garry Davies in the senior men's and Masters (50-59 years) under 90kg.
Jack Kinchella won the senior men's under 73kg silver, behind Brown, while Kinchella also won the senior men's open bronze.
Wanganui Judo Club's Darren Train got bronze in the under 81kg and silver in the restricted kyu division.
He was fighting in his first competition in several years, as were clubmates Daniel Watson (former WHS student), who won the senior men's under 100kg gold, and Connor Gibson, with bronze in the junior men's under 73kg.
Joshua Cox (former WHS student) won the senior boys under 50kg gold, while also in the same class, Adam Shaw got the under 40kg silver.
In the junior boys, Marshal Littlefair and Jared Shaw won bronze in the under 32kg weight class, then they backed up in the open weight group where Littlefair got silver and Shaw the bronze along with Lucas Bishop, who was at his first tournament.
The City College Judo also had a first timer in Livi McDougall, who won the senior girls under 60kg division, while clubmate Megan Manuka won the over 78kg Female Masters (30-39 years).
The Watson's " in Casey, Keightley and his brother Callaghan " will now enter the larger Waikato-Bay of Plenty tournament in Tauranga in this June.
It will be used as another step towards the Sydney International Open in September.