THE peak of the judo year for players is the British National Championships held over two weekends at the Institute of Sport arena in Sheffield.

There was particular excitement in Worcestershire because two of the Samurai club’s best-ever youngsters, Darcie Hancocks and Leah Grosvenor, were both in the same weight category.

The question was, could the two players both fight their way into the final?

It happened with Grosvenor sweeping aside two Scottish and an Irish player all by maximum point wins before reaching the final.

Hancocks also performed well to reach the semi-finals before beating an old rival from Edinburgh, who she usually overcomes but who edged her out in the final of the Scottish Open earlier this year.

It was a tight contest, but Hancocks dominated and two penalties to her opponent for passivity put her into the lead and she calmly closed the contest down to reach the final against Grosvenor.

In the final, Grosvenor started on the attack and peppered Hancocks with throwing attempts. The latter weathered them but picked up a penalty for passivity as she could not get her own attacks in.

Hancocks, however, countered and gained a high score and the pendulum had suddenly swung.

Grosvenor was unable to equalize and so had to settle for silver with Hancocks taking the gold.

Worcester’s Sian Bobrowska was also competing and hoping to win her first medal at the event.

She started well against a Liverpool player and took just 17 seconds to score an excellent maximum-point throw to win the contest. Her next opponent, from Goole, also lasted less than a minute, while opponent number three from Tonbridge suffered a similar fate.

This put Bobrowska against a Scottish player in the semi-final, which was a much tougher contest.

The Worcester teenager was a score down with just seconds to go when she executed a great counter- throw and got a ground-hold on her opponent to clinch her first ever place in a British final.

Bobrowska faced Mollie Game from Surrey who had beaten Hancocks in the semi-final of the Venray International in Holland.

Bobrowska had been well briefed to block Game’s grip from high over her shoulder, but in doing that she moved backwards and as she did, the Surrey girl hooked a leg and drove her backwards to the ground, gaining both a score and a hold from which there was no escape.

However, a silver medal was an excellent result for Bobrowska who ended a year in which she has also won gold at the British Schools and Welsh Open championships.