THE Devizes Open Judo Tournament in Wiltshire always attracts a strong entry and Callum Spencer and Olivia Turner from Samurai Judo Club travelled down to the event, both returning with gold medals and in Olivia’s case an extra silver.

Callum, the current British Under 12 Years silver medalist, simply took apart his category, winning four contests by maximum score. The organizers even gave him two friendly contests against a player nearly one and a half times his weight and Callum won both of those as well.

Olivia, the current British and European Special Needs Champion, faced some heavy opponents in the Under 16 Years open weight category, but three wins out of three also secured her the gold medal.

Aged 15, she then also entered the adults section and another three wins took her into the final against a vastly experienced England Squad second level black belt.

Astonishingly, Olivia dominated the first minute and a half of this contest, forcing her opponent onto the back foot, but when they moved to the ground her comparative inexperience at this level caused her to attack when it might have been better to retreat and she was caught with a neat submission move.

Nevertheless, the silver medal and such a pleasing performance in the seniors were both good results for her.

Meanwhile, there was a junior low grades event at the Samurai club itself in Zortech Avenue on the same day. Harrison Flello and Zach Main were both in the lightest boys weight category, Harrison won two contests against players from Wrexham and Stafford to take the bronze, but Zach was absolutely on fire and won all four of his contests by maximum points to take the gold.

In the next weight category but one, Harley White was in action and took a deserved bronze, losing to a player from Shepton Mallet in the semi-final but winning against another Welsh player in the bronze play-off. Then in the next weight, an excellent three wins saw Luke Mole take the gold medal, his first mainstream gold.

Zach Main and Harrison Flello were both also entered into the higher grades section and again fought very well, with Zach taking silver and Harrison bronze. Also in the boys higher grades, in a heavier weight group, Spencer Benton defeated a Camarthen player to take bronze.

In the girls, Katy Jennings was doing well and had an eight-minute marathon contest in her semi-final, which she eventually won with a groundhold, but then lost in the final to a Codsall player and had to settle for silver. Meghann O’Sullivan added a bronze in her weight group.

For details about starting judo, telephone 0776 1122977 or visit samurai.org.uk