CALUM Hartley was presented with the Alec King Trophy for the most improved boy of the year at Kendal Judo Club's annual tournament while Laura Hogg received the Bert Taylor Trophy for most improved girl.

Both players won national championships and Hartley's success led to him, retaining his place on the British squad for the second year while Hogg won her place on the squad at the first attempt.

A huge surge of interest in the sport this year saw 25 Kia Tigers, the under-8

pre-judo group, demonstrating their grasp of theory and tedhnique before the tournament progressed to a record 13 judo categories.

Andrew Barnes-Davis had to fight for a golden score to claim his gold in the under-8 group with Joe Furgeson taking silver and Malachey Downing and Jonathan Carysforth winning bronzes.

In the 8-year-old category James Knox took gold with silver going to Liam McKinnon. Bronze medallists were Jamie O'Connor and Keste Johnson.

In the novice category, the crowd was treated to another nail-biting final as the girls competed for a golden score, victory being snatched by Beck Porthouse with Ellie Moore having to settle for silver. Rosie Broyd and Katie Sandman claimed the bronzes.

The three mixed novice groups revealed a lot of potential with tightly contested finals won by Daniel Stacey, Ben Sadek and Holly Nelson.

Silver medals went to Steven Tremear, Sam Lester and Ben Butcher with bronze medals to Kenneth Sandman, Chris Rose, Patricia Lewis, Griff Lewis, Leona Woodburn, Jacks Campbell and Sam Porthouse.

A fine display of judo came from the more experienced girls group, Robyn Bindloss winning all her matches to take gold. Crystal Miller took silver and Amy Hardy bronze.

James Toal and Michael Hardy were closely matched in the final of the 34kilo category with Toal sewing up the gold, bronze medallists were Alex Stewart and Jack Kilshaw.

The highly competitive 38kilo category echoed Kendal's Lancashire League successes with a convincing victory for Aaron Asplin, silver going to Blake Robinson and Mark Carruthers and Shaun Lewis claiming bronzes.

Cameron Stewart had to pull out all the stops against team mate Nathan Hogg to take gold in the 42kilo category. Bronzes went to Michael Carr and Leigh Dickinson.

Thomas Watson took gold in a closely-fought 50kilo final with Ben Sadek silver and Sammi Sadek and Matthew Wright winning bronzes.

A fine display of technical judo came from the older fighters in the 60kilo category.

In a hard-fought final Chris Miller took gold and James Wright silver. Bronzes went to Laura Hogg and Matthew Wright.

The crowd were treated to national standard judo in the final heavyweight group with top honours going to Danny Harper and silver to Gavin Lewis with bronze medallists Laura Hogg and Lian Wilson.

January 3, 2003 11:00