Judo

After a long pandemic break, Martial Arts has returned to St Paul’s in a slightly slimmed down version.

Rob Lawrance, our Aikido coach for thirty years, departed at the start of the pandemic and it has been impossible to replace him. This gave us an opportunity to look at our Judo provision and introduce a new Junior Coach to the Martial Arts team. Ramon Alexander joined the school in January with the remit of refreshing the Junior Judo activities. He has started with SPJ students and coaches the students as they progress up to the Fourth form.

The senior element of the Judo team continues to perform well. While there was limited opportunity for school matches, the Independent Schools Judo Tournament was held at the end of February during the exam season. Although this prevented some of the senior members from attending, the newcomers performed well.

Both James and Paul ranked 1st in their weight categories. During most of the competition, they had to fight in heavier weight classes because of the limited number of competitors. Alex and Sean did very well as they competed against more experienced older boys at this year’s Tournament. They can look forward to next year as the more senior entries.

It was a pity that Joachim Sciamma could not attend the competition because of his exam commitments, but he has still provided excellent leadership as Captain of SPS Judo throughout the year, ably supported by Sean Chong as Secretary. ❚

INTERMEDIATE GROUP (Under 16 years)

James Sahota: Ranked 1st (U 50Kg) Paul Belhomme: Ranked 1st (U 55Kg)

SENIOR GROUP (Over 16 years)

Alex Fletcher: Bronze (U 66Kg) Sean Chong: Bronze (U 73 Kg)