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Big future: Kate Walker, pictured here throwing a Great Britian team-mate, is one of Samurai's success stories.

KIDDERMINSTER'S Samurai Judo Club has received national recognition for their treatment and coaching of students after being only the second of its kind in the country to be given the Clubmark Gold award.

Chairman Sarah Newbury was presented with the award by British Judo Association development officer Graham Bayley.

The awards are the government's kitemark for all sports clubs, and they have to demonstrated qualities of leadership, coaching, administration, care of students and child welfare.

Samurai had hoped to be the first to be awarded the accolade but was pipped by Dartford Judo Club, which has just opened a £4.3 million new building.

Founded in 1979 Samurai quickly became Worcestershire's premier club, a position they maintain to this day, and then became one of the top five or six out of the 100 clubs in the Midlands in terms of competition results, with numerous British champions and even world masters medalists.

Unlike many martial arts and karate styles, judo is unified throughout the world because of its inclusion in the Olympics.

There are over a million players in France and Germany alone, and eight million in Japan, so the opposition is much stronger.

The club also have rising stars such as Kate Walker and Kelly Edwards vying for a place in the London 2012 Olympics.

Walker is also one of the standbys for the Great Britain squad going to the 2008 Beijing Games.

Samurai also have three of the country's main events organisers from the Newbury family, while club president Malcolm Limrick was the National Competitions Commission and chief coach Andrew Haffner is regarded by many as the country's top events expert.

Club coach Keith Merrick is one of only eight current international referees in Britain, with Carol Leverton only one level behind him as a National A referee.

Samurai also set up the well-respected flagship - the Bev Price Teams competition, which attracts fighters from China, Poland, Portugal and France.

Another area the Clubmark assessors were impressed by the club's structure of sessions.

Juniors have separate sessions for beginners, less experienced and more experienced students and ambitious competitors.

Older fighters also have separate sessions for beginners and advanced pupils.

The club is also aiming to build new premises in the next year to accommodate the sport's growing interest and are currently applying for planning permission.

Not only will this enable them to extend their current 140-strong membership, it will also attract major competitions and squads into the area.

Several of the British national judo squads have already expressed an interest in using the facility and it could also be used as a training base for some of the foreign teams competing in the 2012 Olympics.

Anyone interested in joining the club can telephone 0776 1122977 or visit the Samurai website on www.samurai.org.uk

9:00am Friday 9th May 2008

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