McKenzie's best win yet
ASHLEY McKenzie signalled his Olympic intentions
with his finest display to date at the third Judo World Cup of the year in
Warsaw. The 21-year-old, who trains under Chris Bowles at Tonbridge, led the
British charge, overcoming players nearly twice his ranking to claim -60kg gold.
He won six bouts on his way to glory seeing off Armenia's World Championship
bronze medallist Hovhannes Davtyan in the final.
McKenzie, who is ranked 46th in the world, also defeated Czech judoka Pavel
Petrikov, ranked 25 places higher than the Brit and China's Yunlong He, ranked a
further six places up the ladder. The European under-23 champion downed both
Petrikov and Switzerland's Michael Iten by ippon before repeating the trick
against Davtyan to take home the gold.
A delighted Bowles said: "Beyond any doubt it's the biggest win of his life and
it couldn't have come at a better time. It's his first senior A tournament win
and is a massive win in the wind up to the Olympic Games. "He is not going there
(the Olympics) to compete, he is going there to have a good shot at a medal.
"His speed and power is off the scale, but not only that, he's got a great judo
mind."
Elsewhere, Tonbridge's young stars have been out in force over the past couple
of weeks. Enrico Atkinson struck gold in the under 66kg, under 15 boys' North
West Open. "There's no stopping the boy," Bowles said. "He has not been defeated
for ages. "He's won all the national qualifiers. Whatever has been thrown in
front of him he has dealt with. He's always pulling something out of the bag."
There's a lot of young talent coming out of the Tonbridge Dojo at the moment,
judging by other results at the North West Open in St Helens. Ben Urban and
Louis Dolman took silver, Tommy Chambers, Aaron Turner, Amelia Cook and Zak
Farrance all scooped bronze medals. Harry Try, Ryan Cottom and Zoe Boulderstone
all fought well to take fifth.
This weekend, all eyes will be on Croatia to see how many scalps Jemima
Yeats-Brown claims in the Europa Cup. In the words of Bowles 'watch out
Croatia".
Article by By Glenn Garrett Tonbridge Courier 4/3/2011
