WALTON Judo Club players travelled to Thetford for the Eastern Area Judo Championships.

In previous years, the club have missed out on gold medals.

However, they more than made up for it this time.

Evelyn Silvester, 13, had the best day, not only becoming area champion in her own weight category but also taking a silver in the class above.

With a couple of winning scores in the dying seconds of her first two contests and a confident victory in her third, it was only club-mate and friend Alana Taylor Weeden that prevented her from taking top spot.

Alana was totally dominant in all her contests and richly deserved the area title.

Not to be outdone by his sister, Perry Taylor Weeden showed good contest skills to take the over-66kg title, even though he had only weighed in at 67kg and was therefore the lightest in the category.

Henry Spooner was on fine form, with great combination techniques and highly technical groundwork on show.

He only looked challenged in one contest.

In a tough-fought contest, Spooner was eventually held down and had to settle for the silver.

In their first open grade competition, Hamford Primary Academy pupils Gemma Lewis and Anya Nibre put up some great performances against more experienced and higher-graded players.

They were both impressive, with Lewis taking a bronze and Nibre coming fifth, gaining valuable competition experience along the way.

England squad player Rowan Lockyear never looked troubled in his group, making other nationally ranked players look very ordinary on his way to the senior men's title.

This rounded off a good week, having just taken a well-fought out bronze medal in the Welsh Open in Newport.

This was despite competing virtually one-handed with a broken finger.

Clacton Judo Club's Kacper Lesniewski had an awesome competition, winning contests with maximum points and pulling off probably the best Ippon throw of the day.

A perfectly-timed and executed Ippon Seoi Nage (shoulder throw) wowed the audience and saw him through to a well-deserved silver medal.

In large tough groups, Clacton's Logan Sprott, Oliver Ward and brothers Jake and Daragh Bucke missed out on medals on this occasion, with Sprott placing fifth in the most competitive group of the day.