Seventeen members of The Combat Academy travelled to Worcester to compete in the British Open Submission Fighting Championships, and returned with a total of six gold, five silver and one bronze medal.
Competing in their first major championships cousins, Caitlin Wheadon and Jack Wheadon-Hill defeated a total of six opponents to take the gold medal and National title in their respective categories.
Another family double was completed as Becky Hayes stormed her way to the gold medal in the girls under 45kg category while brother Daniel collected a silver medal in the boys Blue – Black belt open weight category.
A junior national champion in Ju Jutsu Kumite, Olly Bohn was looking to add the national grappling title to his medal collection. Olly put in a tremendous performance defeating four opponents to take the Gold medal and championship title.
Another of the Academy fighters in his first major championships, Ross Hutchinson defeated three opponents en-route to the final of the under 45kg category, where the fighters were so evenly matched it took three minutes of extra time before the referee awarded him the win and British title.
Barnaby Flynn collected the silver medal in the boys over 60kg category. Although only a red belt Barnaby put up a spirited fight against his higher graded opponent.
Three of the Academies fighters competed in the under 35kg category. Connor Gill and Matthew Frost both recorded good wins in the first round but unfortunately were drawn against each other in the next fight with Connor taking the win. Connor’s next opponent withdrew due to injury giving him the Bronze medal. Elliott Volpe lost a first round decision to the eventual gold medallist.
Seventeen year old Emma Baker collected a hard earned silver medal in the women’s open weight category. Despite conceding weight in all three fights, Emma put in an outstanding performance, including a decision win over Angela Boyce, a professional women’s cage fighter, who had been undefeated for over 5 years.
Dan Buckley took the gold medal in the mens under 95kg after submitted his opponent with an arm-bar.
Neil Preedy was looking to improve on the silver medal he had taken at last years event. Following a couple of good wins in the early rounds Neil faced a Russian who is an undefeated professional cage fighter. Despite a valiant effort Neil was forced to submit to a choke hold and so had to settle for another silver medal.
Chris Konieczny had some tough fights as he progressed to the final of the open weight category. With the scores still level after extra time the referee awarded the fight to his opponent leaving Chris a hard earned silver medal.
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