A first year Bridgwater College student, who is studying the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Public Services, has recently represented Great Britain in two international Judo competitions.

Toby Attwood, who is 17 years old and trains with Bradley Stoke Judo Club, made up part of the Great Britain squad to enter the competitions which were held in Belgium and Holland in November.

The first tournament was the Flanders Judo Cup 2015, in Lommel, Belgium. The competition involved more than 800 competitors from 14 countries around the world, including, Azerbaijan, Israel, Poland and Russia.

Toby won his first fight, which was against the Belgium number one, though lost his second to a Polish fighter in the dying seconds after having the advantage for the entire fight. Unfortunately, this meant that Toby didn’t progress into the final stages.

The second competition was held in The Hague, Holland. This extremely tough competition brought together 1400 competitors from all over Europe. Toby’s group consisted of an impressive 47 fighters. After winning his first fight in under 10 seconds, Toby narrowly lost to a strong contender from Russia at the end of the four-minute fight.

His third fight, against a Dutch fighter, didn’t seem to be going Toby’s way and he was losing by a large margin when he lost his contact lens. With only the sight in one eye, Toby threw his opponent with a combination technique awarding him the win with only ten seconds remaining. 

Despite getting concussion, caused by hitting his head during a throw and losing his final battle, Toby finished an impressive seventh place overall.

On reflection of his achievements Toby said,

“These two competitions have been great preparation for the British Championships that I am competing in, in early December.”