4 Murakwai Players travelled to the Kelvin Hall International Arena in Glasgow for the 2009 Scottish Open.  Kirsty Kee won silver and Jodie Kee won Gold in an excellent weekend for Murakwai.

Team Murakwai at the Scottish Open '09

Jodie Kee was under a tremendous amount of pressure to get a result at this year’s Scottish Open, after the previous weekend’s disappointment at the British Nationals in Sheffield.  Jodie made it out of her pool and then faced last week’s British Champion, Freya Dechastelain in the Semi-finals.  Jodie fought extremely well against Freya and won with 2 yuko throws, earning her a place in the final.  In the final, Jodie defeated Alana Hennessey, in the first 30 seconds with a throw and a hold to claim the Gold and title of Scottish Open Champion for 2009. 

Kirsty Kee moved up a weight category to 52kgs to compete at this event after last weekend’s British Championships success at 48kgs.  Kirsty fought exceptionally well winning her first 3 fights by the maximum ippon score to put her in the final against the Scottish number 1 and UK School Games Champion, Dannae Harris.  Kirsty started the final well but was armlocked in the second minute, meaning she would have to settle for a Silver medal.

Alan Kerr was competing in the under 73kg category.  Alan had a tough draw and fought Dan Finney, a bronze medallist from last weekend’s British Championships, in his opening contest.  Alan fought very well in this fight but was caught with a very good throw half way through putting Alan down into the repechage, where he needed to win 5 fights in a row to win a bronze medal.  In his next contest, Alan had a rematch with the Welsh player who had defeated him at this year’s UK School Games.  Alan fought much better this time around and threw his opponent for ippon half way through the fight.  Alan won his next contest after golden score but unfortunately lost his next one to leave him in a respectable 9^th place.

Rory Kelly was fighting in the under 60kg category.  In his first fight, Rory had last weekend’s British Champion, Kyle Sweet from Wolverhampton.  Rory fought well but struggled to cope with Kyle’s gripping and was eventually thrown for ippon.  This put Rory into the repechage where he won his next contest well with a wazari throw, but unfortunately lost his next fight leaving him in 7^th place.