British Championships 2025 🥋🇬🇧

Over the weekend a team from EdinburghJudo made the journey down to Nottingham for the final competition of the year: the 2025 British Championships.

Billy, Gav, Sarah A and Craig were on hand to coach and support the competitors across the weekend, and with 18 players competing across the cadet, junior and senior categories, it was a very busy two days of competition!

📸: Andrea Robertson

The weekend began with our cadets and juniors stepping up to compete first, with lots of positive judo on display and the drive to see every contest through until the end.

There were wins, losses and a variety of lessons learned - especially for those who were competing at the British Championships for the first time this year. Regardless of the result, each player showed great determination and camaraderie throughout the day, helping each other warm up and supporting each other from the sidelines during their matches.

Kudos to Alban for a commendable campaign through the repechage of the cadet -66KG category, just missing out on the chance to fight for bronze, and to Omar for an impressive performance in his opening contest against the current Junior European Champion Irakli Goginashvili in the junior -73KG category.

It was our junior girls who ended the day the podium, with Eva comfortably working through the -48KG category to come away with the gold medal and title of 2025 Junior British Champion. Zaffira just missed out on the gold in the -63KG category this time after battling her way to the final, and Kirsty pulled out some big throws in the -78KG category to take a well deserved bronze medal - great work girls!

📸: Andrea Robertson

The second day in Nottingham saw the seniors provide plenty of action to cap off the weekend; with explosive contests and some big throws on display throughout the day.

Scott powered through his contests, displaying a lovely array of judo throughout the day to score both standing and on the ground, securing his chance to fight for gold. In a gritty final against Spencer Lambert, Scott came out on top after throwing his opponent with a slick combination to become the 2025 British Champion in the -90KG category, following his title in the -81KG category in 2023.

For others, it was perhaps not the result that was aimed for going into this event, but that's judo. Medal or no medal, there were strong performances by the whole team that they should be proud of. As always, everyone comes away with more experience under their belt and plenty to work on back in training - regardless of the result obtained.

📸: BritishJudo

Well done to everyone from EdinburghJudo who stepped up to compete across the weekend to round off a good year of events. Thank you to our coaches for their guidance and looking after the team in Nottingham, family and friends for supporting from the stands/watching at home, and congratulations to the following players on their podium finishes:

Scott Cusack (Senior -90KG): Gold + 2025 Senior British Champion 🥇

Eva Ewing (Junior -48KG): Gold + 2025 Junior British Champion 🥇

Zaffira Edwards (Junior -63KG): Silver 🥈

Kirsty Wilson (Junior -78KG): Bronze 🥉

Looking forward to what's to come for the team in 2026!