RECENTLY, enthusiastic youngsters of Sale Judo Club competed in their quarterly grading competition.

The large number of members and some of their parents witnessed some brilliant judo and had the opportunity of meeting Regional and National Stars of the sport.

Russell Parker, a Sale Judo Club member in the under 10 year old category, recently gained a bronze medal and the BJA Midlands Area competition.

Also in attendance were Luke Brown, junior silver medallist at the BJC National competition earlier this year.

His younger brother, Kane, was a bronze medallist in the primary grades (under 10), at the same National event.

David Nicholls, currently the No. 1 in the UK senior rankings in the under 90kg category was also there. He has won gold medals in several national level competitions became silver medallist in the British Closed Championships in December.

He visited his old Judo Club at Sale Leisure Centre where he began judo under the watchful eye of the Mr Akinori Hosaka as a young star almost 20 years ago!

The club has continued to be successful over the past 25 years, has thriving sections at primary, junior as well as senior levels and has produced several British Champions and even Olympic team members over those years.

Mr Hosaka, himself a 7th Dan, Kodokan exponent, places emphasis on safety and discipline in training, says, "Judo is a sport as well as a martial art for self defence which develops the person physically as well as mentally and teaches him or her to respect fellow players.

Judo can help young people to focus their minds and contribute to their academic progress.

Whilst we like to encourage our players of high ability to strive for national level competition, we warmly welcome persons who wish to learn of the wider aspects of judo in order to develop both physical and mental attributes at their own levels."

Judo stars shine at Sale club

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.