Tooting school ranked number one after fine showing at British Schools Judo Championship

Ernest Bevin College won five medals at the British Schools Judo Championship – making it the number one school in the country for judoka.

Pupils from the Tooting school faced the best competitors from 460 schools and won two gold, two Silver and one bronze medal at this year’s competition at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield earlier this month.

The star athletes were Omar Amaidia, 16, and Umar Zabboughi, 13, who both won gold to be crowned 2018 British Schools champions 2018.

Amaidia had an outstanding performance as he had a taken a break from competition to concentrate on his GCSE preparations. He put in the performance of his career to date, dispatching all of his opponents with a combination of throws and strangles. In the final he threw his opponent for the maximum score of Ippon.

Umar, fighting in the SEN (Special Educational Needs) section, won three matches on his way to the national title.

Shayden Walters, 15, and Yusuf Lallmahamood, 14, both fought in the heavyweight boys categories in their age bands and won two matches apiece on their way to silver.

Adem Aouicha, 14, competed in the under-50kgs boys category. He made a small mistake to lose to the eventual goal medallist but won his bronze medal match by Ippon.

Eric Bonti, head of elite sport at Ernest Bevin, said: “It was a brilliant end to what was a great weekend for the Ernest Bevin judo team. Special congratulations to the boys who took part and thanks to all the coaches, who coach at college and at our community judo club in the evenings.”

All the schools who took part in the championships are ranked with points awarded for number of gold, silver & bronze medals as well as a point for each participant.

Ernest Bevin came out top with the most medals of any school in the country, without counting Umar’s gold because medals won in the SEN category were not counted in the overall table.