International plaudits for Rush's young stars

The event, held at the University of East London’s Docklands campus, is a prestigious competition and was attended by nearly 500 judoka from a total of 16 countries.

The Berkhamsted-based Rush Judo club came away with six individual medals, including three golds, plus a prestigious Team England medal for Emily Niven.

The total medal haul was as follows:

Gold medals: Evie Halvey-Jacobs, Nicole Wood and Ben Hasler.

Silver: Gergo Berendi and Leah Hasler, who were both unlucky in their respective finals, just missing out on earning a gold.

Bronze: Logan McAdam.

Emily Niven, Hannah Niven, Lewis Fryer and Annie Rabia, who all finished in a creditable fifth-place, also had a good competition with some fine ippon wins between them.

At the end of the weekend each country chose their best judoka (three male and three female) to fight in the team competition.

Emily Niven was selected to represent England in the U57 weight category, where she won all of her fights by ippon and was a major contributor to England winning the team event. She was also able to gain a measure of revenge when she ipponed a French judoka who had narrowly beat her in the individuals.

With England taking gold, France silver and Canada/international all-stars a bronze, it certainly finished the tournament off in style.

Rush Judo coach Pete Brent, who was there for the whole weekend and was running between four mats to support and coach the Rush squad, was particularly pleased with Emily’s emphatic performances in the team result.

He said: “It was superb from Em. It just goes to show how hard work can pay off.

“We’re so glad a member of Rush Judo was picked [for England team] and rightly so.”

Rush Judo runs classes for all ages and abilities at their permanent dojo at Ashlyns School. For more details, phone Laurie Rush on 07949 609 569.