Titan Judo

Highland Open

Four of our more experienced players travelled north to Fort William to compete in this years Highland Open.

Stefan Creran and Ross Hepburn, who are now part of the West of Scotland Talent Development Squad fought in the morning, with Peter Doogan and Stuart Kennedy, two of our seniors competing in the afternoon.

Ross was first up for the team and started really well competing hard against what seemed to be much larger opponents. There was some excellent techniques shown with a fantastic tate shiho gatame hold for ippon against an east coast player which was rewarded with a bronze medal in the 60kg+ category.

Stefan was next up competing in the -60kg category which was undoubtedly the category for the craziest hairdo. Stefan started slow but really came on to a good performance by controlling his opponent with his gripping skills. There was no medal here but definately a good start to the competitive calenar.

The two senior players won their first fights of the day by the skin of their teeth. This was against the weigh in scales! Once on the mat Stuart was first up and started of with a throw for ippon. Stuart kept up the performances and won match after match by ippon all the way to the final. In the final Stuart fought well but was caught with a good throw for Ippon by, would you believe “Mr Mcguinness”, no it wasn’t me it was an english player who was part of a large team from Newcastle who had travelled north to compete.

Well done Stuart on an excellent silver in the -90kg category

Peter fought in the -81kg and his first fight was against a frenchman, there was some good exchanges in this match but Peter was caught on the ground and could not escape hi opponents grip.

Next up was a match against the eventual winner of the tournament. Peter attempted a nice seoi nage, but again was caught on the ground. Not the result Peter was looking for but gives us a starting point for the next competition.

Well done to all of the guys who fought.