The Samurai Women and Young Women Open has become an annual hit among the Oxford ladies, with continuous success for both kyu grade and dan grade competitors. The competition is split up in kyu grades, different dan grades, and a masters division, and then there’s an open division divided in weight grades, so everyone gets plenty of fights.
This year was no exception as the four Oxford ladies came home with 9 medals between them and Georgie Allsworth pocketing a smashing 50 points, thus finally reaching her one hundred 1st dan points. All that is left is the theoretical exam, so expect her to be sporting her new black belt on the mat any day now.
Claudia Havranek took bronze in the kyu grades and silver in the open division, Georgie Allsworth won gold in the open bracket and bronze in a huge weight bracket (63 – 93 kg) in the 1st kyu division. Abbie Clayton secured a gold in the masters and a bronze in the 2nd dan and above, while Emma Burnett returned to the mat from her maternity hiatus to boss her way through 11 fights to claim bronze in masters, bronze in the 1st dan category and a silver in the open bracket. Big thanks to the coaches for the day Rachel Wheatley and Carol Doherty.
It might be true that women love bling, but nothing beats the ones that they’ve fought for and earned through hard effort and dedication.
Well done ladies!
Update: Georgie passed her theoretical grading on Sunday 21st of August and with it earned the right to call herself 1st dan! Congratulations!