Aston Jitsu Club celebrated its most successful year in its 20 year history by winning five medals, including gold and bronze medals, at the 2009 National Atemi Jitsu Championships earlier this month. The Championships is BUCS largest martial arts competition.
Jan Fetzer won two gold medals in the novice category, Manu Hart won two bronze medals in the orange belt competition and the club’s lead instructor Sensei Eric Lau took third place in the Open Competition. Many other competitors from the Aston Jitsu club also made it to the finals in their respective competitions.
The club also picked up the coveted ‘National Atemi Champions’, which is awarded to the most successful club at the end of the competition. Sensei Eric Lau said 'Winning these medals and the Championship is excellent and a real testament to how hard we have worked to make Aston Jitsu the fantastic club it is. This year we celebrate 20 years as a club and the quality of Jitsu here in Birmingham has never been higher. We have had an amazing result at this year’s Nationals and we are really proud of our achievements.'
There was also terrific news from the Water Polo team this week as they won their BUCS group tournament for the first time in their history on Saturday.
The men’s team drew one match and won two matches, thrashing Essex 14-3 in the process!! They now proceed to the national semi-finals of the coveted Universities Shield Cup in the New Year.
The result is the culmination of a lot of hard work by the Water Polo team over the past few years building up the number of team members (both male and female) and building up the number of training sessions.
Team captain Andy McGrail: 'We are absolutely delighted with the result at the weekend. Once we won the first game the confidence in the team just grew and grew. It is great to see that all our hard training has paid off. We really hope that the club will become more recognized after this victory.'
Water Polo Chairman David Jordan: 'Thank you to the players and supporters who came to watch us play on Saturday, they really spurred us on and gave us lots of encouragement. I also want to say a big thank you to Tril More (water polo coach) for all the effort he has put into the team – we really hope to build on this success.'
The team should certainly gain a higher profile as a result of this victory and are now focusing all of their efforts on the Universities Shield semi-finals next year.
Words Simon Foster
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