Medal haul for Rush Judo at British Schools contest

The judoka were mainly from the Berkhamsted-based club’s developing squad, who had all qualified at the Northern Home Counties Regional Qualifiers event in January, plus some adaptive judoka who competed on the Sunday.

Saturday saw Leah Hasler win gold in the Year 10/11 (U44 kg) category after fantastic wins en route to the podium.

Rhys Connor just missed out on a medal with a fifth-place finish (Year 10/11 U60), while there were seventh-place finishes for Jacob Berry (Year 8/9 U55) and Bethany Wood (Year 8/9 U57).

Coach Laurie Rush was extremely pleased with the results, adding: “They all fought to the best of their capabilities and you can’t ask for more than that.

“Well done to Leah who battled to win gold.”

Sunday saw Rush members in both the mainstream and adaptive judo sections.

Nicole Wood (Year 6/7 U48) was ecstatic to blaze though unbeaten to take the gold after a seven-minute final.

Ben Hasler (Year 6/7 U27) also took gold while Paddy Lish was in an extremely hard category, fighting with juniors, to come away with a fantastic fifth place (Year 12/13 U66).

In the adaptive section, Leo Rumsby-Ferris had a fantastic final to win the gold.

Stanley Walker and Keira McKenna competed in two pools with both awarded a gold and bronze medal.