An excellent performance from Kirsty Kee in the u52kg category at the NI Open seen her win Gold in the Juniors and then a superb Silver in the Seniors. There were also medals in the Seniors for 2 other girls who train at Murakwai. Olga Lyashevska won Bronze in the u70kg category & Renata Urbanaite won Bronze in the u78kg category. Alan Kerr, Rory Kelly & Chris Connolly all competed well for the club but unfortunately they didn’t get into the medals. The 3 girls, Kirsty, Olga & Renata were the only NIJF players to medal in either the Juniors or the Seniors at this British Ranking event, held in Queen’s PEC, Belfast.

Rory Kelly was awarded his 1st Dan Black Belt at today’s Multi-Dan event at the Hammer Youth Centre in Belfast. Rory won all 5 of his fights with the maximum Ippon score, the last 3 of which were one after the other in a line-up. In the same event Adam McCune gained his 1st 10 points & James McCullough another 20 toward their Black Belts. Alan Kerr was unlucky not to get any points toward his 2nd Dan, Simon Mackey fought well and earned 22 points toward his 3rd Dan & Scott Mayne gained another 20 points toward his 4th Dan. Congratulations to everyone who took part & a big thank you to Sarah Beattie & Andrea Bingham for organising a fantastic event!

Murakwai had a great day at the NI Schools held in Longtower, Derry today. There were 4 Golds for Megan Mackey, Tori Kee, Kirsty Kee & Alan Kerr, 4 Silvers for Jack Eachus, Oliver Fleetham, Daniel Mayhew & Rory Kelly, and a Bronze medal for Conor Kelly. Caitlin Eachus & Daniel Hodgett finished just outside the medals. Congratulations to everyone who took part!