Saffron Walden Judo Club members Sophie Daniels and Jos Goddard are celebrating after success in Holland at the Venray International Judo Tournament at the weekend. Their achievements are extremely impressive considering it is the biggest tournament in Eu

Saffron Walden Judo Club members Sophie Daniels and Jos Goddard are celebrating after success in Holland at the Venray International Judo Tournament at the weekend.

Their achievements are extremely impressive considering it is the biggest tournament in Europe, with over 1500 competitors from 24 different countries.

Jos, aged nine, took bronze in the under 11 years division at under 34kg weight while Sophie, 15, took gold in the under 17-year-old category at under 63kg.

Coach Allen Goddard said: "To come away with two medals at this level of competition is truly fantastic and is testament to the hard work all the players and coaches put in at the Club."

Sophie showed why she is currently one of the hottest prospect in the Junior British Judo Team as she dominated her opponents securing four victories and no losses.

She started in blistering fashion getting two very comfortable victories.

Contest three was against a tall Dutch girl who Sophie managed to knock to the ground where she used her brilliant ground work skills to manoeuvre her opponent into a Juji-Gatami (Cross Arm Lock) to take the win by submission.

Sophie met a very strong French girl in the final. Sophie quickly seized the initiative with another fabulous piece of groundwork to turn her opponent into her favoured Juji-Gatami (Cross Arm Lock) to once again take victory by submission and become the 2007 Venray International Judo Champion.

Jos recovered from a defeat in his first bout to secure four wins.

In contest two and three and four Jos was back to his very best, finding success with fabulous left handed Ippon-Seoi-Nage (Shoulder Throw) to take the victories.

In contest four it was again Jos who did all the attacking, eventually managing to knock his opponent to the ground where he manoeuvred him quickly into a hold to take the win by hold down.

This meant Jos was now into the bronze medal final where he bided his time and eventually took the medal with another brilliant left Ippon-Seoi-Nage.

- Fifteen-year-old Charlotte Wraith, from Great Dunmow, took on some of the best young judo players in Europe last week, securing sixth place at the Poland A Cadet Championships.