A British Visually Impaired team competed at the Venray International Tournament last weekend for the first time ever.

The team, which was also the only visually impaired team to enter the tournament, clocked up an impressive three gold medals.

Selected to compete in this event from the VI Squad was Sam Ingram (-90kg), Ben Quilter (-60kg), Lesley Reid (+78kg) and Darren Harris (-66kg).

Current VI World Champion Ben Quilter put in another good performance coming out on top of the -60kg competition. Quilter overcame his two opponents Fabian Vos of the Netherlands and Jan Zilgens of Germany in his surge for another gold medal.

2008 Beijing Paralympic bronze medallist Sam Ingram was on top form, winning all three of his fights. Ingram saw off Steffen Struck from Germany in his first fight and Arno Van Beest of the Netherlands in the second round.

Ingram then faced last year’s silver medallist Stig Jensen of Denmark in the final, which saw the Brit take charge once more for the gold medal.

Taking the final gold for GB was World bronze medallist Lesley Reid who beat her only opponent, Nicola Ratkay of Germany, twice out of three bouts.

Darren Harris had a good start with a bye in the first round, but was caught by Albert Westerhof of the Netherlands in the second.

Harris then fought Jonathon Perez (ENG) in the repechage and was a wazari and a yuko up, but got thrown for 10 on the buzzer.

British Judo’s Paralympic Programme Manager Dave Sanders described the tournament as “good experience for them all and worked out well”.

Ben Quilter at the VI World Championships

© Bilgin Yurdalan