Judo: Cookstown and Dungannon clubs update

Judo at the Dojo, based at Union Street in Cookstown, held a highly successful club grading for both their junior and senior members.
Back row Chris Taylor. Aimee Taylor. Joe Quinn, Coach Paul McConville.
Front Row Left to right Courtney Farmer,Ben Taylor,James Barbour,Matt Barrett,Terry Grant, Paul Conway.Back row Chris Taylor. Aimee Taylor. Joe Quinn, Coach Paul McConville.
Front Row Left to right Courtney Farmer,Ben Taylor,James Barbour,Matt Barrett,Terry Grant, Paul Conway.
Back row Chris Taylor. Aimee Taylor. Joe Quinn, Coach Paul McConville. Front Row Left to right Courtney Farmer,Ben Taylor,James Barbour,Matt Barrett,Terry Grant, Paul Conway.

Senior members Brian Taylor, Aimee Taylor and Chris Taylor all successfully graded to yellow belt and Paul Conway graded to green belt.

At a national grading in Dublin, Joe Quinn won his mandatory two contests and passed an intensive theory examination, qualifying him for promotion to blue belt.

The junior members who were graded showed a very good understanding of the syllabus.

Ben Taylor, Courtney Farmer, Terry Grant, Matt Barrett and James Barbour all were promoted to full yellow belt.

Matt Barrett, who has been practicing judo for less than a year, deserves special recognition, as he won a silver medal in his category in his first ever competition, the Swords Open in Dublin, which is a great achievement for him and he is a judoka to watch in the future.

The club hopes to run another club grading in June to coincide with the national grading in which Paul Conway and Joe Quinn will compete for their blue and brown belts respectively.

Meantime, Ren Bu Kan judo club in Dungannon had six of the best at the Irish Open championships in Dublin. The club won six gold medals as well as two silver and three bronze.

Star of the day was Malwina Milecka who won the Womens under 56 kilos and the Masters (over 30 years), closely followed by Stella Marie Corr who won Womens u48 kilos and was third in Masters.

Stella’s brother Micky Corr beat a Dublin-based Japanese boy in the final of mens u60 kilos with what was one of the best throws of the day.

Paul McConville won gold in Mens Masters category, Tomasz Wozniak and Marek Kubiak reaching the finals of their categories but lost having to be content with silver.

Cathair McGurk beat all his opponents in style to win boys u27 kilos, his older brothers winning bronze, Padraig in u34 kilos,Finn in u42 kilos, a great day for McGurk family.

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