Jonty on Southern Area medal podium

Jonty used the Southern Area Open on 12 November to make his first serious competition outing since 2014.

Fighting at -73kg, Jonty held Zodiac’s Herculas Pretorius for ippon, before facing Tonbridge’s Cameron Bradley for the gold medal. Jonty nearly won the fight in the opening exchanges when he countered Bradley’s uchimata for waza-ari with tani-otoshi.

Bradley carried on attacking, Jonty nearly scoring twice with uchimata sukashi, however it was Bradley who came out on top in the end, throwing Jonty for ippon.

This was a great result, and a well deserved silver medal for Jonty, against two players who were much more experienced than him. Jonty also put up a credible performance against an -81kg player who was added to the -73kg group.

Full results are available online.

Jack Rogerson, who is well on his way to becoming one of our most decorated players, fought a week later at the South Coast u16 Open. By his own admission, Jack turned in a curiously under-par performance and failed to get out of his pool. Never one to be disappointed, JAck is now targeting the Southern Area schools championships in January.