Lisburn Cup

On Saturday 20th April 2007 a large contingent of judogi represented Yamakwai Judo Club in the Lisburn Cup held in Lisburn Leisure plex. There were 450 competitors with novice competitors from the age of 5, right up to -16 cadet internationals, from all over Northern Ireland and numerous entries from across England & Scotland. With a emphasis on fun for the novice competitors which included lots of games in the group warm ups.

The youngest of our members Dana Cardwell started her first competition at the tender age of 5 in the novice -20kg event with a feisty performance against much older and bigger opponents and finished with a silver medal. Laoise Ferris continued in her winning ways by picking up the Gold medal in the novice -24kg event, with cousin Aoife Donegan finishing as runner up to her. Olivia Turley in the novice -26kg event and Caitlin Mooney in the novice -27kg showed great determination and fought well as both won the bronze medal in their respective categories. Tara Rouse won her first gold medal in the novice
-52kg with a superb performance.

In the boys’ novice events Jordan Thompson dominated the -28kg novice event by winning all of his fight’s by Ippon in a matter of seconds and continued his winning ways with a gold medal, club mate Sean McDonald finished as runner up to Jordan with the silver medal in this category. Ryan Herald fought his way to winning the silver medal in the novice -39kg weight category. Patrick McGirr and Aaron Willowby fought well in the novice -41kg event and both finishing the day with a bronze medal. Christopher Herald followed his brother Ryan’s example by winning the bronze medal in the -70kg novice event.

In the -16 competition Bobby Cardwell followed the competitive example of young sister Dana in the -36kg event with one fight going to golden score against a junior British squad member, Bobby had to retire from the competition due to an injury. Molly Kennedy fought well in the -44kg event but came up against current Irish International Louise Brown and her respective British counterpart and their experience came through with Molly finishing with a bronze medal in her new weight division. Lisa Cardwell gave a solid performance in the -48kg event winning the gold medal. Paul Irwin showed his continuing dominance in the -31kg category with wins against some strong opposition to win the category convincingly. Jack Turley fought his way to the bronze medal in the -34 kg weight with Eoin Fleming and Conor McGirr winning the bronze medals in the -45 weight categories.

This was another strong competition for the West Belfast Club winning 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 9 Bronze medals and picking up invaluable experience along the way.

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