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Ernest Bevin College’s
Phoenix Judo Club will receive their Clubmark Bronze Award and
officially open their purpose built dojo on Thursday June 24th.
The highly-regarded outfit,
which has produced such standouts as two-time Olympian Winston
Gordon and fellow British international Eric Bonti, is now earning
a reputation for developing some of the brightest prospects in
British judo.
Eric Bonti, who started
his judo career at the all boys’ school in 1984, has since returned
as a P.E teacher.
“The award is down to everyone
who has been involved in judo here, it also recognises the rich
history of Ernest Bevin where judo goes right back to the 70’s,”
he said.
“Former pupil Val Morrison
represented Great Britain at the 1976 Montreal Olympics where
he took a credible 4th place.
Bonti and Gordon, along
with former Commonwealth Champion Keith Davis, made their mark
on the international stage under the regime of Margaret Hicks
and her husband Simon.
“Margaret and Simon took
us up to international level,” said Bonti.
“When I finished my judo
career I came back here to coach. I was very lucky to get a teaching
qualification to teach P.E and also coach judo.
“Since then we’ve had Greenhouse
Youth, a charitable organisation who set up lots of sporting initiatives
in London schools, they have come and got involved with judo and
set up a judo programme here which is the first pilot programme
so to speak.
“Three years ago it was
just me running the judo side of things as we opened the new dojo.
The head of P.E provided some assistance but thanks to Greenhouse’s
input we’ve been able to employ Winston as our full-time judo
coach. Since then the sport has really grown here.”
Gordon, 33, who took fifth
at the 2004 Athens Olympics, is best known for taking Commonwealth
Games gold in 2002. The popular judoka, who won top honours at
the British Open in 2009, is striving to compete at his third
consecutive Olympics in 2012,
The popular judoka, who
took gold at the Slovenia ‘B’ European Cup event on Saturday,
is relishing his coaching role.
“It’s great to be able
to give back to the youth of today,” he said.
“I have to make some
adjustments to my own training and for example do my conditioning
before school starts but I love the job and it’s great to be back
where I first started my career alongside Eric.”
The club train at Ernest
Bevin School, SW17 7DF. Boys and girls train on Monday and Thursday
from 18:00 – 19:30 with men and women training on the same days
at 19:30 – 21:00.
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