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A fourteen-strong British
cadets team won eight medals on Thursday 13th May at the Lugi
Camp in Sweden.
The medal haul included
six gold, one silver and one bronze. Four gold medallists emerged
from the pre-cadets ranks including Connor Potts and George Goldsmith.
The self-funded trip
was led by England Excel Coordinator Matt Divall, who was joined
by 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Simone Callender and
highly-regarded prospect Joe Wathan.
Matt Divall said: “ We
looked at the programme and decided that we needed to create opportunities
for players to access international events.
“We have more trips coming
up to Romania and Japan as well as a junior playing camp in Italy
this summer.”
The Lugi Camp, regarded
as one of the sport’s biggest cadet camp’s in the world, typically
attracted hundreds of competitors from across the globe, which
underlined the necessity for Britain to have a presence in Scandinavia.
“It’s a hugely popular
camp in Sweden, with over 500 players competing and 800 in the
training camp,” added Matt.
“For a lot of our young
judoka’s it was their first international competition and for
some it was their first time on a plane.
England Squad Coordinator
Trevor Sitlinton holds the event in high regard and belives the
young British players can be proud of their medal-winning exploits.
“All those who competed
had at least one win and the overall standard of the competition
was very good,” he said.
“They all demonstrated
good basic skills, good techniques and fitness, they were a credit
to their clubs and parents.
“There was plenty of quality
randori sessions and opportunities to practice and develop their
skills. For many of our players it was their first opportunity
to compete and train at this level so the whole team should be
very proud.”
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