Two judo golds and a bronze pleased 89 year-old mentor

From the left Maxwell Catto, Archie Frusher and Daniel Stevens.

Students at the John Dearden Judo Club made their long-serving instructor proud at an event in Thetford.

The Hampton-based club rebranded recently in honour of the 50 years service to the sport of Mr Dearden.

He’s 89 now, but is still a regular attendee of club sessions when he dispenses wise advice.

Covid has restricted the chance for members to compete against other clubs, but young Judokas picked up two gold medals and a bronze in a tough event in Norfolk.

Maxwell Catto and Daniel Stevens were competing in their first event within the Junior (8-12yr) category and Archie Frusher was representing the club in the Senior Players (over15yrs) category.

Maxwell fought well in a challenging pool and succumbed to a couple of strong Ippon scores from the opposition, but was awarded a bronze medal.

Stevens lost his first fight to a strong opponent, but went on to win his following two fights in spectacular fashion to win gold.

His third fight only lasted a few seconds before he despatched his opponent with a beautiful hip throw to win by a maximum Ippon score.

Frusher won all three of his fights by Ippon to win a gold medal comfortably.

He showed great all-round skills by winning the first fight with a strong foot-sweep and the second with a fabulous counter technique.

Frusher’s final fight was won with a submission following some lovely ground work and a well-executed strangle.