Gorleston's Two Sombo English Open Champion Titles
On Sunday the 9 th July, the Norfolk Sombo Association , had a team of students entered in the English Open Sombo Championships, which was held in Saint Albans . Attending this competition were established Sombo wrestling clubs from Bournemouth , Sittingbourne Essex, and Milton Keynes .
All of the students had a successful trip bringing back a collection of medals with two students winning their weight group competitions, thus becoming the English Champions for 2006, in fact in the junior girls weight and age group the club achieved a clean sweep of the medals. The following medals were won by our competitors :-
Junior Boys 9 - 13: - Open Group Bronze Medal - Shaun Balls
Girls Group 14 - 16 - Gold & English Champion 2006 - Martine Clark
Silver Medal - Samantha Clayton
Bronze Medal - Danela Balls
Boys Group 14 - 16 - Gold & British Champion 2006 - Sam Lawson
Bronze Medal - Daniel Storer
Senior Men Group 1 - Light Weight Bronze Medal - Martyn Smith
Senior Men Group 2 - Middle Weight Silver Medal - Andrew Chambers
Senior Men - Veterans - Heavyweight Silver Medal - Graham Mann
Sam Lawson, also fought in the Senior Open Competitions and fought very well and was narrowly beaten by the eventual winner of the competition, but also collected the Silver Medal in the senior group. Andrew and Graham also competed in the heavy Weight Open Competitions but came up against some very stiff competition.
Martine and Samantha also competed in the Senior Ladies Group and both fought very well to get Silver and Bronze Medals respectively.
The Competition was hosted by the Sombo UK Organisation, to which the Norfolk Sombo Association is affiliated. The Senior Coach and joint event organisers Steve Sweetlove and Paul Saywer were very impressed by the way all the Norfolk competitors fought for every point and were very pleased to have the Norfolk Sombo Association team at the event.
The event referee and National Sombo Coach, Mr. Tim Thomas, also said he was very pleased to see the Norfolk competitors taking part in another national competition and the high standard which was shown by all the students, against some very good experienced opposition.
The clubs head coach Graham Mann, would like to congratulate all who took part in this competition, especially the two English Champions, For Martine this is her third title this year (Norfolk Open, English Open & British Open) and this is Sam's second title this year (Norfolk Open & English Open) and the two newest senior members of the team Martyn and Andrew, for who this was their first taste of a Sombo Competition. The team would also like to thank Gary Webster for getting the Mini-Bus to and from Saint Albans and getting us all home safely, and the injured Spencer Evans Webster who came to support his colleagues despite his injury, which prevented him from competing.
