kamiko Judo Clubs trip to Lanzarote

On saturday 23rd february I recieved an email from the Judo Club waza-ari, who's coach Alejandro Collada I had met when we visited sillicia and took part in the 6th memorial Falcone and Borselillino squad Competition. He was invitiing us to take part in a competition in Lanarote at the begining of March.

This gave us 2 weeks to get a full squad of 6 together, all in the right weight groups, try to find a flight and organisetime out from school, if allowed during exam time, oh and see if Debbie would let me go!

Why did I think this might cause a problem, most of our fighters had commited themselves to other competitions and we had to find flights to fit the dates we needed.

The flights did cause us a headache, finding the right dates at a price we could afford! When we did find a flight, the dates didn't fit for everyone and once we shuffled the dates around the flights went up by over £80.00. Luck would have it, with did some searching we did find a flight with British Airways.

We did find our fighters and although two of the boys had exam's the schools were very understanding and moved the scheduel around so they could go.

So Friday morning and we are on our way. We flew from Gatwick at 4.30pm arriving in Lanzarote at 8.30pm. We were met at the airport by Alejario who drove us to Costa Teguise, where we would be staying at the Hotel Occidential Grand teguise. What a hotel it was, if ever you want a Holiday in Lanzarote then we would fully recommend it!

Once we had off loaded our bags we went down to the resturant for something to eat, the food was buffet style, with a large enough varity to temp everyones pallet. After we had finished our meal we went to meet the other squads and be weighed in (allowences were made for all the food we had consummed) we went through the rules of the competition and then there was a presentation all the boys were given gifts. It was a joy to meet up with Daniel and his squad from France Mersailles who's competition we will be attendind in June, as well as meeting up with Francesco and Antonio who's father competiton we attending last October in Sicilly.

Saturday Morning and then off to the competiton venue only a short didtance from the Hotel. Once we arrived we met other squads from all over the Canarie Islands. The competition was to be a mixture of Squad events and individual competitons.

First off was the squad event, this didnt go too well for us, only winning one fight out of six, this may have been down to nerves and some big weight differnces particulary in Harry's case.... or they were just better fighters then us, but thats life. We were hoping the next squad event would give us a chance to show our worth but unfortunatly due to lack of squads it was a straight knock out event. Oh well bring on the individual events!

Everyone really gave it their all, making me proud of their fighting spirit, George Tom and Sam all made it through to the finales on the Sunday.

Sunday came bright and early with hopes of a medal or two and the boys didnt let us down.

Tom fought his way to a bronze, George a Silver (keep that temper of your's in check George and it will be a gold next time)

Sam got himself a Gold, his first in a European event, quite an achievement as Sam was fighting in under 81's and he is a 66kg weight groups, so Under 81kg's Lanzarote Champion 2008.

After the medal presentation it was back to the Hotel for a well deserved rest around the pool. we attended a gala dinner with all the other squads and were presented with two replica ancient pottery statues made in Lanzarote. Our hosts could not have done more for us, the food was fantastic and the selections of deserts amazing, I think these's were the lads favorites as they went back for seconds and thirds!!!!! Monday was all about topping up tans, playing football and lying around the pool, oh and a little shopping for presents.

Finally Tuesday and back to windy old England oh joy!

I would like to finish by thanking the boys, their parents for backing their children and Kamiko all the way, and also the schools of all our Judoki. The schools have really worked with us in, allowing the boys time out of school so they can travel around Europe, compete in the events and make friends with our European cousins.

Rik

For further details please contact Debbie on 01621 744291 or email debbie@kamikojudoclubs.com