Report on the IBF Multi-Nation Judo Championships May 10th 2003
Swallows Leisure Centre, Sittingbourne, Kent
Competing Countries England, Scotland, Germany, Poland & Holland
The IBF is a multi-style Martial Arts organisation catering for all the different Martial Arts, it has representatives in most countries of the World. Every year different countries are expected to run international events; this year it was the turn of England.
The dominant Martial Art in IBF UK is Judo so getting a quality Judo team together for what was to be dubbed the Friendly Judo Championships was not a problem. The task of running this momentous event was left to Young Judo Club Sittingbourne instructor Keith Costa 3rd Dan. The Young Judo Club is one of the oldest Judo Clubs in Kent, founded in 1957 by John (Nobby) and Margret Clarke. Son Martin is still the senior instructor for the club but the day to day running, coaching, organising trips and competitions is down to Keith Costa. Keith is getting an extremely good reputation as a competition organiser he has run many IBF UK Judo Comps and 2 British Sombo Wrestling Championships.
This competition was to be the biggest and most important event Keith had run to date, in fact it was to be most probably the biggest Judo event in Kent since the Nobby Clarke Memorial Championships of 1991 certainly the biggest in Sittingbourne. The Swallows is certainly the ideal venue with sufficient space to have 3 mats, tiered seating gave everyone ideal viewing and with a Swimming pool next door an ideal escape once the youngsters had finished competing, with the whole venue decked out with bunting and banners it had the air of an Olympic stadium once again due to the hard work of Keith and his band of helpers. A blast from Queens “we will rock you” signalled that the event was about to start the audience joined in with clapping in sync with the music, next followed a Parade of Officials and Competitors with the theme tune from “Gladiator” very apt. Once the everyone was lined up the officials were given a complimentary souvenir pennant of the day, IBF Presidents from Germany, Poland, Holland, England and Scotland were presented with cups compliments of the Young Judo Club Sittingbourne, Keith Costa also received Samurai Statute from IBF Great Britain and a presentation medal from the Polish Team. IBF International President Mr Friedebert-Georg Niering 9th Dan (Germany) gave a welcoming speech, translated by UK President Martin Clarke 8th Dan and opened the competition at 10.30am.
As soon as the competition started you could feel the atmosphere change from that of a Carnival spirit to a Gladiatorial sense of occasion with 70 different categories to compete for this was going to be a tough day. The IBF divide their categories into age and weight bands see the enclosed programme for the complete list. The founder of IBF UK was Nobby Clarke 6th Dan he died in 1990 but it was very pleasing to see his 76 year old widow Margret Clarke 4th Dan in attendance. Margret (Mother of our present President Martin Clarke) was the first women Black Belt in Kent (1962), she was also the first professional Judo Coach in the UK, performed Ju No Kata at the Albert Hall in the 60’s when all the Japanese Master’s appeared and was awarded the Sports Council’s “Sports for All Award ” for services to Judo in the 70’s. Mrs Clarke has had some health problems and has to now rely on a Zimmer frame to get about but she thoroughly enjoyed the day saying that she was pleased to see Judo returning to the art of the big throw. All countries provided some excellent fighters and to go through every individual final would be just to long winded so I have just listed some that caught my eye:
Ashley Costa (England) v Ningbuss Holland this was one of the most exciting fights of the day both these young men have been competing against each other since they were Juniors. Ashley has been on some good form lately and looked the favourite but it was not to be with Ningbuss scoring a Yuko (5pts) with a foot throw it put Ashley behind in the dying seconds he managed to retrieve a Koka but on this occasion the Dutchman was to strong. This was a good sporting match and a marvelous example of competitive Judo.
Philip Jackson England won the Gold cat 12 under 41k in what was the largest contested weight category
The Carrott Family Dad Colin, sons Lee and Danny all won Gold. These three live in Folkestone, train at Martin Clarke’s Young Judo Club, help run the Spitfire Judo Club Folkestone, work together in the family business and have also recently all won medals in the British Sombo Wrestling Championships. You would have though a newspaper would have jumped at an article on this unique family?
Wesley Cousens England v Johannes Alder Scotland Men under 81k this was another terrific bout both these men were amongst the best Black belts in the competition Wesley has just rejoined the IBF and comes from Dover, Johannes is rated one of Scotland’s top fighters. Wesley took the fight straight to Johannes scoring several times through the match and as the fight came to a close it looked as if Johannes could not break through his opponents defence but that is the joy of Judo because anything can happen at any time. At the very last moment both players went to the floor and from nowhere Johannes produced an armlock forcing Wesley to submit.
England’s Francesca Steggall group 4 u44k Gold, this was an exceptional young lady who had not completely recovered form a broken shoulder still competed. It seems her granddad recently died and she felt she had to fight for him. I am sure her granddad was looking down on her with great pride.
2003 Multi Nation IBF Judo Results
A special thanks to all Referees, Officials and especially the TimeKeeper/Recorders as several of these failed to appear putting more work on the others. Greg Garside and Margaret Smith did not leave the table throughout the whole day thanks very much.
|
|
|
|
|