SAMURAI Judo Club’s Gary Knight has gained his second level black belt after finally completing both the competitive and technical requirements.

Knight, aged 36, has had a very successful couple of years since coming back to judo with the Samurai. He has won the British Veterans Championships in both 2017 and 2018, but topped that by recently taking silver at the Commonwealth Tournament and is now in training for the 2019 British Veterans where he hopes to complete a rare hat-trick of golds.

His father Ronnie, a 6th level black belt and so entitled to wear the coveted red and white belt, is also a member of the Samurai club and trains there regularly.

In a busy weekend, Harry Ashen was in Amsterdam competing in two international judo tournaments with the England Squad, and took a silver medal at the first of these on the Saturday and fifth place on the Sunday.

Meanwhile, young brothers Luke and Jordan Phillips travelled to the Welsh National Sports Centre in Cardiff for the Welsh Schools Open and both returned with gold medals, which also qualifies them for the British Schools Championships in March next year.

Finally, Rob Starbuck went to the High Wycombe Kyu Grade Cup, mostly looking for more points towards his black belt, and not only clocked up another thirty points but also took the silver medal, only losing to a much younger player in the final.

For details about starting judo, telephone 0776 1122977 or visit the Samurai website on www.samurai.org.uk or their Facebook page.