UEL Judo shine in competitive debut

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Many of the team had only started training in September when sessions started up in UEL's new £21million SportsDock building on Docklands campus. Two of those who only took up Judo recently included the only girl to enter for UEL, Lucy Hunnisett (-63kg) and Polish-born Oskar Hatlas (-73kg) who both came away with silver medals, both narrowly losing in their finals by ippon.

Sussex judoka Stephen Kent featured in the +100kg category. Having recently returned to training after taking a two year sabbatical from the sport, he excelled in his two fights winning both by ippon to take home UEL Judo's first gold medal.

A third silver medal was won by Helder Fransesco (-73kg) who is another member of the team with previous Judo experience and lastly a bronze medal was won by another newcomer, Kelly Kenubia (-81kg) who triumphed in his first two fights, only to lose in the semi-final by ippon.

Two UEL judoka narrowly missed out in their bronze medal fights, the team's most experienced Judoka, Latvian-born Artjom 'Tim' Smirnov (-66kg) and newcomer Youseff Badr El Din (-73kg) who eagerly awaits his next competition.

UEL Judo coach Denny Roberts was pleased with his team's performance, “Considering for many of them it was their first competition, I thought they did brilliantly and to come away with a few medals is great for them and the university.”

UEL Sports scholar and African championship bronze medallist Szandra Szogedi who was instrumental in setting up the UEL Judo team was also thrilled by the results “They all did so well. Those who hadn't competed before loved every minute of the day and I am so proud of them all.”

The team will now focusing towards the BUCS Judo Championships 2013 on the 23th-24th February in Sheffield where they hope to pick up more medals and bring more success for UEL Judo and the university which is aiming to be the best in London for sport by 2015.

See photos of the team in action

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.488960574469567.115771.479464888752469&type=1

Videos of Lucy Hunnisett & Stephen Kent on route to winning Silver & Gold respectively

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCOtt9QS7UQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DG9H_VI6TI