THE Focus Judo Club in Galashiels had a number of notable victories at the Bupa Charity Open Grand Prix competition in Motherwell recently. Arran Little competing in the u38kg section won Bronze, James Glendinning in o48kg won Silver, Ewan Jones (u30kg) won Bronze and Holly Shepherd (o48kg) came back with Silver too.

Arran fought through some tough opposition to gain his well deserved Bronze medal and his good friend James Glendinning also done exceptionally well to get second place in a very hard category. Ewan is constantly improving and regularly gaining medal placements and this was another valued medal for him.

Holly is also constantly improving her Judo, winning all but her final fight of the day to secure the silver medal. Harry Chisholm fought very well and is a very determined competitor, he never misses a training session and with this continued attitude will see some success in the future.

Also, Monica Riddell fought very well competing in a weight category above her own weight class. Instead of pulling out due to a low turn out, Monica agreed to fight in the weight category above her own. She applied herself very well in all her fights and is constantly gaining valuable experience.

Focus head coach, Tam Hardie said, “We gained four medals from six players today, which is a very good result for us. This takes nothing away from the other two players either because they fought their hearts out and keep getting better at every event. Their time will come too.

We are all very proud of our competitive players as it takes loads of guts and courage to compete in these events. All in all it was a very good day for us.” Also on the day, club coach, James Hunt was presented with the accreditation award for Focus Judo from Judo Scotland’s chairman, Ronnie Saez.

Focus Judo runs on Monday nights at the Focus Centre in Galashiels.

Details at www.focusjudo.org