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British School Judo Champions 2016

A team of 16 boys qualified for the British Schools Judo Championships, which was held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield during the Easter holidays. This year the event was expanded to fill two days, with roughly twice as many competitors entering - including many junior internationals - and with 235 schools represented. This event operates as an individual competition with the winning school determined on the basis of points earned through medals won. Harrow were champions last year and in 2014, so expectations were high for our team.

In the Junior Event, Scott MacNaughton finished with a bronze medal in the Over-73kg division. In the Intermediates, David Holland showed fine tactical judo to earn a bronze in the Under-81kg category. In the Senior Under-73kg division, Captain Nikita Ponomarenko worked hard to overcome a narrow loss early on, and in a thrilling match for bronze medal managed to turn the tables on his opponent in the closing seconds and force a submission by armlock.

Fighting up a weight category in the Under-90kg division, Alex Wade stood his ground against very experienced opposition to finish with bronze. In the Over-90kg category, Harry Markham achieved our best individual result of the day - a silver medal - having edged a win over reigning champion KC Bassey, who has struggled with a knee injury all season and who came through his remaining matches to finish with a bronze medal.

Harrow's final medal haul was five bronze and one silver medal: equivalent to 30 points, which again placed Harrow first in the Championships overall.