reigning champion

Judo is back in the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 2002.

I have just realised that this means that Winston Gordon (Icons passim) who won gold at -90kg at those Manchester games is still the reigning champion although is twelve years at the top will come to an end this week.

Not a bad outing though.

Gordon's alive!

Winston Gordon claimed gold at the English Judo Open in Sheffield on Sunday.
The Tooting judoka, who coaches at Ernest Bevin College, beat Enfield’s Philip Awiti-Alcaraz in the -100kg final with an Ippon as a result of a throw.

He won his three previous bouts by the same method, beating Theodore Spalding-McIntosh in just 30 seconds in the semi-final.

Ernest Bevin’s Jack Kelly lost to Awiti-Alcaraz in the other semi-final but claimed bronze in the repêchage.

In the U20 competition, Haris Kekic claimed gold in the +100kg category and Adam Horshal won bronze in the -90kg category.

The club won another seven medals at the British Schools Championships the day before.

Congratulations to Winston on winning the English Open. I wonder why he moved up to 100kg after all these years competing at 90kg. Perhaps making the weight just gets tiresome.

You can see the Bomber here with pretty much the crew who won seven medals at the British Schools Championship. Who knows what could have been, but then again you can't do everything. He's training tomorrow, playing a schools sevens tournament on Friday and then turning out for the Ruts at a rugby festival at Effingham and Leatherhead on Sunday. Not a lot of room for judo as well in that schedule.

Work Ethic

Your probably working all day like me, but - if it happens to coincide with a coffee break - Winston Gordon will be looking to reverse GB’s dire fortunes in judo when he meets Canadian Alexandre Emond in the ExCeL at 9.51am in the Elimination Round of 32.

As far as I can tell, it will be on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2xyt.
Update: It seems to be on http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2yg5

Just before 10 am: Ippon! Super win.

If he gets through that, other coffee breaks will be as follows:

10:40 - 11:07 Men's -90kg Preliminaries
11:36 - 11:49 Men's -90kg Quarter-finals

14:28 - 15:23 Men's -90kg Bronze Medal Finals Medal event
14:42 - 14:55 Men's -90kg Semi-finals
16:10 - 16:20 Men's -90kg Gold Medal Final

Over and Out: Lost in the second round, dagnabbit!


For the video record:

First Fight
Second Fight

ExCeL

The British Olympic Association (BOA) announced the 14 athletes that will represent Team GB in the men’s and women’s judo events at the London 2012 Olympic Games, yesterday.

Winston Gordon (35; born and lives Tooting) got the men’s -90kg berth for his third successive games.

I sometimes feel like I go on and on about this, but I am awed by the physical (injuries and rivals) plus the political (last August, Margaret Hicks his original mentor, was sacked as the BJA's elite performance director) obstacles he has overcome with this achievement.

90kg Men Olympic Judo - Wed, 1 August.

As long as the fire’s still burning

“When you get onto the mat, if you don’t respect anybody who’s on that mat, you’re not worthy to be on it. You’ve got to respect everybody, whatever their creed or colour of origin. When you go on that judo mat, everybody’s won.”

A quote from a profile of Winston Gordon (2nd from right back row in the photo above) on the Telegraph web site today. The Bomber also appears in the picture at the right of the front row. I'm not sure Ben ever really understood what elevated company he was in. (I've also just noticed that the son and heir is also, and not untypically, the only kid too reserved to be displaying his medal.)

Anyway read the article here. It is all true and he walks the walk; as is demonstrated in our photo of an Olympic athlete taking a day out of his schedule to help Eric and Darren chaperone a junior team at a competition.

Winston

I don't know how I missed this but:

Tooting judo star Winston Gordon hopes the spirit of 2002 can help him conquer the world in 2012.

The 35-year-old middleweight judoka was last week named in the Team GB squad for next year’s London Games, despite missing the recent test event at London’s ExCel Centre at the weekend through injury.

The two-time Olympian, who will now make his third successive Olympic appearance next summer, won Commonwealth Games gold when the event was hosted in Manchester nearly 10 years ago.

See Icons Passim. The Bomber's given up judo for rugby and athletics now. I wonder if he realizes what a privilege it was to train with Winston, and simply to watch him come from hospital and crutches in 2009 to Olympic rehabilitation in 2012?

For the good times

Back in October (Icons passim) I wrote as follows about the Bomber:

Note to my future self - the day he says he wants to quit judo or rugby, grin and bear it regardless of what you would actually prefer.

Well that day has come, and he says he wants to quit judo. For the record he is third from the right in the photo above.

Regarding the sliverware:

Ernest Bevin’s Phoenix Judo Club, one of the most well-known in British judo, won Sports Club of The Year after excelling at events in the capital including the 2010 London Youth Games for which the club was also presented with the John WE Davis Award for making the most significant contribution to the event.

Winston, the guy on the right won gold in the under 90kg division at the Sarajevo European Cup a week or so ago.

What can I do but shrug my shoulders?

Silver and Gold

"Adam Hoshall National Champion and Jack Kelly sliver medal, " reported Winston on Facebook from the U20 British Trials in Shefflield yesterdy. I guess he'll be in the Seniors event today.

The British Judo Association will be streaming it live on http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/live/.

I can't help but think that the Bomber has lucked out with his judo club and their winning ways.

flying solo

The Bomber picked up a bronze at yesterday's judo tournament.

The rite of passage however, is that he got on the minibus with the rest of the team at seven o'clock in the morning and went to a competition without me or his mother for the first time.

Hand on heart, it may well be more of a rite of passage for me than for him; my ten year old seems all gwowed up.

Omoplata

In case you also heard Darren refer to it and didn't know what it was:

The omoplata (referred to in Judo as ude-garami or sankaku-garami, 三角緘, "triangular entanglement" or ashi-garami, "leg entanglement") is also a commonly featured shoulder lock in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The locking mechanism is similar to the kimura lock, but instead of using a figure-four, it is applied using a leg. The omoplata can be applied from the guard, by placing one leg under the opponent's armpit and turning 180 degrees in the direction of that leg, so that the leg moves over the back of the opponent and entangles the opponent's arm. By controlling the opponent's body and pushing the arm perpendicularly away from the opponents back, pressure can be put on the opponent's shoulder. It is also possible to put pressure on the elbow joint by bending the leg entangling the arm, and twisting it in a specific manner. Though an effective lock, it is more difficult than other armlocks to successfully apply. The technique called a monoplata is a similar armlock that resembles juji gatame or spiderweb position yet has a mechanism like a omoplata.

That clear? Me neither. I am sure he was implying it was illegal in judo. Maybe kids aren't allowed to use it.

Ninjago, as they say.

JU(st) DO(it)

Judo started again last night after a month's break over Christmas. The Bomber got his fifth mon grade in December, and he is due to be competing in a team competition for the club on Saturday. I'm not sure where it is but it might be something of a trek because the minibus is leaving at 7am.

Perhaps I will get him an Olympic Judo 50p.

Gi Whizz

Coming soon... the new IJF approved Fighting Films Superstar. As worn by 2010 World bronze medallist Euan Burton and Commonwealth Games Champion Winston Gordon.

I'd promised the Bomber a new judo suit for his birthday, but when it arrived it was the wrong size due to some sort of mix up. Fortunately Winnie managed to sort him out last night from some stock he had so Ben will be unwrapping a new gi next week.

In an amazing coincidence, I noticed on Facebook that Fighting Films had uploaded a YouTube video featuring Winston promoting their new suit on the very same day. Beyond cool for a nine nearly ten year old to get it from him.

Top of the world

Judo's 2010 World Championships start in Tokyo at 1am GMT tomorow morning, with EB Phoenix's Winston Gordon among the 21 strong British team.

What a thing it has been to see him fight his way back to competing at the highest level after a career threatening injury.

The Bomber and I wish him all the best.

Yellow Belt

The Bomber got his fourth mon at judo on Thursday so he's now a yellow belt. At first he only thought he was going to be playing uke on someone's else's grading so it was a nice surprise when Darren tested him out as well. A marker like this every four months or so is a good way of evaluating and rewarding progress, and there are 18 mons altogether, so that will be plenty to keep him occupied while he is a junior.

We're off for a cycle this afternoon along with his mate Jonnie, and Jonnie's dad Andy as the four of us are doing the Richmond to Windsor bike ride with Bondy et al later this year.

It would be good if I could get him to comb his hair or take a shower from time to time without having to resort to threats of blood curdling violence but overall things are pretty good.

The only real mistake I've made lately is to expose him to my - admittedly very fine - Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi impersonations. Has lead him, this has to demand like the Jedi master I speak to his friends to my toe-curling embarrassment.

In future, my own counsel will I keep on who is to hear. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... zzzzzzzzzz

a true gent

The two guys in white suits practising ne-waza attacks against their defending partners in the phtoto above are:

• the Bomber - centre back
• Kosei Inoue: Olympic gold medalist, multiple world champion, and David Beckham of Japan - front left.

Ben has got a poster of Inoue in action on his bedroom wall at home, though he didn't recongise him as the face is obscured and he put it up "because it looked cool".

The official opening of the dojo and Clubmark Award was a night to remember.

Slovenia and success

Winston Gordon (see Icons passim) won a gold medal at judo in Celje, Slovenia last weekend. It only occurred to me last night (very likely because I am as stupid as a goose) that this is the same Slovenia that England are facing in a do-or-die football match this afternoon.

This is how the BJA reported it:

Leading the way was long-time standout Winston Gordon who provided a timely reminder of the talent which saw him compete at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, by surging to gold in the under 90kg weight category.

Gordon, 33, who was returning to the British fold after a nine month absence, showed he was in peak condition as he continued his return from a knee injury.

“It’s a nice feeling to get back in the swing of things,” said Gordon.

“I went out and I enjoyed it, it’s important to make sure I’m ticking all the right boxes and my techniques are looking sharp. Hopefully I can push from here and keep on the mind of the selectors.”

Gordon, who's itching to compete at London 2012, won his five fights in emphatic fashion, four coming by way of ippon.

I see him regularly when I take the Bomber to his judo lessons, so I've watched him go from crutches, to a walking stick, and back to the podium over 2009 and 10.

It is an inspiring example of character. Would that England's football team exhibited similar moxie.

Silver

The Bomber won a silver medal yesterday at the British Judo London Area Pro Active Fundamental Event so I am chuffed.

I haven't got any photgraphs though. You were allowed to use cameras as long as you registered at the desk but camera phones were absolutely verboten; some sort of incomprehensible child protection measure I suppose

Ippon

One year to the day from starting judo here is the Bomber's gold medal from Sunday's tournament.

It was a team event. I think there were three in a team, and Darren told me all of Ben's team of red belts beat yellow belts by ippon.

Winston congratulated him after training on Monday, saying that he must have a good heart as he fought back from from behind to win.

That means we've now heard it from a British judo champion as well as a British muay Thai champion. (Would I ever have remembered this without the blog?)

Hajime

The Bomber is fighting in his first tournament this morning. It's at the Budokwai in Chelsea which is the oldest Japanese martial arts club in Europe. The WBI time machine tells me he has been doing judo for a year already.

When I think that he was playing at a rugby festival last weekend, and represented the school in a middle distance race against a dozen or so other local schools the Friday before that, I find the constant refrain that primary school children aren't physically literate difficult to credit.

I'm 100% in favour of any one who will put up hard cash for sport in schools though.

3rd Mon

Let the record show that the Bomber did his 2nd to 3rd Mon grading in judo last night.