The European cadet championships at the beginning of July were held in Malta. When I arrived the weather was lovely as it should be, and I was glad to get out of rainy old England. Sorry folks. We had a day to relax and get acclimatised in our lovely hotel with pool. Then the 3-day competition began. After the first say no one had won a medal. There were some good performances and some unlucky decisions. That night me and the other middleweight fighters got to bed early. Resisting the temptations of the sea front dodgems.

That morning bright and early it was time to weigh in. Managing not to pig out on ice creams the previous day I made the weight fine. Then it was off to the stadium by coach about a 30 min drive from our hotel. The stadium was right in the centre of Valletta. I was now preparing to fight the best cadet fighters in the whole of Europe. My first fight was against the French girl we went for 4 minutes. Sadly due to some dodgy ref decisions and good tactics form the French; I lost the fight by a koka. Gutted. But that was not the end the French girl went on to win some more fights pulling me back in to against the Norwegian. My dad at this point having flown all the way out to Malta was having a beer with judo legend Neil Adams. Sadly he missed my fight. I won by hold-down. The next fight I lost which put me out of the Europeans. Slightly disappointed but still glad to be there. I enjoyed the rest of the day watching my other team members win and lose. The two girls I had lost to got bronze medals, which made me feel slightly better. But still frustrated to know how close I was. Sadly once again no medals for Great Britain.

The next day were the heavy weights. I have to say I was extremely scared by the over 90kg category. One 16-year-old boy weighed in at 206 kg all I can say is thank god I was not fighting them. The last day was the best. By the end of the prelims we had 3 fighters in bronze medal fights. So the mood of in the GB camp was buzzing. Everyone turned out to support our fighters unfortunately all three lost there fights gaining getting well-deserved 5th places. What with all this judo we all needed a chance to unwind. So that evening curtsey of the ECC we had a party on the beach. Complete with our very own DJ. Who funnily sounded like Boarat. Playing were all the English songs we loved and it turned out that every other country loved them as well. I will always remember the Spanish singing along to Umbrella. Amazingly through the power of dance, every country partied together. By the end of the evening it was sad to think that tomorrow we would be on a plane back to England. Away from all the friends we had made and of course the sun.

2 weeks later it was time for the second trip of my summer this time Serbia to compete in the European youth Olympic festival. I was told be at the Sheraton hotel just outside of Heathrow airport for 1’oclok on Friday the 20 of July. So we could take and early flight the next morning. That afternoon we got all our Adidas Kit which included t-shits, shorts, bags, socks, shoes, sunglasses and of course the great British tracksuit. Once this was all sorted, we donned our matching outfits to meet director of the British Olympic association. As well as all the support staff that would be travelling with the GB team. Judo was one of 7 sports that Britain was taking to the 2007 Youth Olympics. The others included Athletics, Swimming, Cycling, Gymnastics, Tennis and Table Tennis.

The next morning we woke up bright and early say 6am excited at the prospect of going to Serbia. However this did not happen due to the terrible weather and flooding the day before flights from Heathrow were delayed, and our flight was cancelled. Disappointed everyone settled down in the hotel foyer waiting to be given to word that we could fly. Though out the day staff tried very hard to get flights. But by that afternoon most of the 64 athletes were still sitting in the Sheraton foyer, told that there was no chance of getting a flight till tomorrow. After Rowena head of the world class start heard this news. The judo team was given instructions to take our bags back to our rooms and put on some training clothes, because we were going for a 3-mile run. Reluctantly we did. About half a wet hour later tired after our run but feeling a little bit more alive we returned. That evening, the BOA decided we needed a treat for behaving so well with all the delays. So they took the whole team to the cinema to see Harry Potter.

Once again we had to get up at the delightful hour of 6am just in case of a flight. At this point I believe a good number of Westcroft judo club were on their way to Worthing to fight. About 9 o’clock we were told again that there would not be a flight until later. As judo did not started competing till Tuesday we were not the priority. So we all settled back to our rooms to play a game of poker with sweets. Suddenly Lisa McIver was knocking on my door. Telling me that they had found a flight and I had to be ready in 5 minuets. Shoving everything in my case at 100 miles and hour, not even having time to put some socks on. I ran to the waiting cab. It was only me, Sam Clark, Tom Williams and Graham Randle that were to catch the plane from Heathrow to Düsseldorf. Then on to Serbia but at least we would be there. Sadly not in time to be in the opening ceremony. Finally after 2 days of waiting and 6 hours in the air we arrived in Serbia unfortunately no one told my luggage. Sitting in an airport somewhere in Europe was everything. I only had the clothes on my back. Worried at the prospect of spending the next few days in the same underwear, I got on the coach that would take me to the Olympic village. Unluckily we only just missed the opening ceremony, but watched it on the telly Before being taken to the British headquarters. The Olympic village was a converted university campus. We were situated in block C along with 5 other countries. Each team had its own floor of the 5-story accommodation block. Climbing the stairs to our floor it was like passing through the different countries. Each floor was decorated with its countries colours and flags. Team GB was no different as u climbed the final steps to our 3rd floor, u were met with a massive union jack. It was only then that I think we realised that we were finally at the youth Olympics.

The next morning after an uncomfortable night in my room with no air conditioning. It was time to check out our surroundings. At this point not all sports had arrived from London. This included my 800m-runner roommate. So we strolled around campus went to watched the other sports, which were competing on the first day and explored the judo venue. Our squad was due for a light training session but as none of other boy’s kit or mine had not arrived yet. It was down to the generosity of my other judo people to provide kit to train in “thanks”. Every evening in the Olympic village there were different performers, entertainments, body artist & loads more fun things to do. After a relaxing day I settled down for bed. My bag still not having arrived I bought soap powder to wash my clothes and all the bathroom stuff I needed from a local shop. So at least I was clean. My mum would have been so proud.

The next day it was down to business. The 4 lightweight categories started the four days of fighting. The judo hall was like nothing you had ever seen in England. There were only 3 mat areas each with video link to a massive screen, computers telling the fighters who was up next, and a stand went the whole way round. The stands were darkened whilst the mats had spotlights. it was like watching a show up town not judo. Not only this but the fact that the temperature was 49degrees did not help the conditions inside it was like being blown by a hair dryer The judo stared at 2 o’clock on the dot and by 4 o’clock we had one girl in the bronze medal fight u48 Kelly Edwards unlike Europeans we were determined to get some medals and the whole team turned out to support Kelly and of course she won. When we got back to my surprise my case was waiting for me. In nice new clothes that evening we hit the village again and went to do some karaoke probably a good thing that there was not time for us to sing.

The next day followed the same pattern, at the judo hall for 1 o’clock ready to start fighting again at 2pm and once again we had another girl in the bronze medal fight this time Sam Clark who was fighting at under 57 kg and just Kelly the day before. She won with a spectacular 10 second Ippon another bronze for team GB When we got back I had some dinner and went straight to bed knowing that I would have to get up at 6am the following day to weigh in

The next morning bright and early careful not to disturb my sleeping roomy. I tip toed out to the busy weigh in room where I made the weight easy as always. After this I had a nervous 5-hour weight till we left for the judo hall. When we finally got there I had a good warm up inspected my draw. Put on my lucky socks. if u no what they look like then u have to agree on how dam cool they are. And settled down till it was time for me to go on, my
first fight was against a girl from Liechtenstein. I won it by an armlock. This put me though to the second round where I was drawn against a Serbian girl. Throughout the first and second day the Serbian support was the loudest only real met by the German hotter. But I was not worried I knew that GB would be there. And I won that fight as well by another piece of groundwork. Next it was a German. If I won this it would put me though to a quarterfinal the German was a strong fighter and left handed just like me. This I found hard to deal with. By the second minute she was up by a Wazari. Still fighting hard I tried to get her on the ground and the ref missed a few little scores. Another Wazari later it was over. Disheartened but still egger to fight my way though the repercharge into the bronze medal fight. I had the Spanish. I started the fight well and then it was over a silly mistake I made after the second matte, left me flat on my back and out of the youth Olympics with a 9th place. On the way back to the village we had a water fight soaking any one who got in the way including the physio’s and Rowena. Even a French boy that was walking along.

The next day it was the heavy weight day and there was a familiar friend fighting the 200 odd kg Lithuanian. Once again the EYOF timing was to the dot, and the competition began. This time by 4 we had Rebecca Telfer in the final fighting the girl that beat her in euros and she was up for a grudge match. After the first 4min of fighting there was still no winner so it was golden score time. Sadly Becky lost but it was still a silver medal the best judo result of the week we were all proud of her.

That night it was time for the closing ceremony and party. The whole GB team was dressed once again in there matching outfits. The flame was passed to Sweden the hosts of the next youth Olympic. Flags were folded for another two years. It was sad as this was the last time all of us would sit in a massive room together. To celebrate the occasion team GB started a Mexican wave. After everyone piled back on the shuttle buses and arrived in the village we all ran to get changed and join the party on strict instruction that we had to be back in our rooms by 2am that night was amazing with over 3000 people all dancing together and jumping up and down.

Tired we all hit the hay at around 2 o’clock like good little athletes ready to fly home the next day.

Looking back at the experiences I have had over this summer. It feels me with pride to say I was there and to have done things that some people could only dream of. I just hope that in 2 years, 4 years or more that some of u will get to go, because this summer has been the best experience of my life and I really recommend it. However its not only a lot of fun, you have got to be prepared to put in the blood sweat and tears which there are a lot of in our sport, but I promise you in the end it's all worth it.

Kerry Ford