Toby Attwood, a judoka from Cheddar, earned a bronze medal at the North West open event.

CHEDDAR judoka Toby Attwood, who trains at Bradley Stoke Judo Club, competed in the North West open event, which is a cadet ranking for Under-17s and came away with a bronze medal.

Toby, aged 14 and in his first year of the cadets, knew this was going to be a tough year. However, in an extremely competitive group, he has already picked up valuable ranking points to date and prior to this event was ranked at number 10 in Great Britain.

Toby lost his first fight to a Scottish fighter, but showed amazing sportsmanship in admitting that he had tapped out when none of the referees had spotted the incident, leaving him with the formidable task of the repecharge for bronze.

Toby won his next two fights convincingly, putting him into the final for the bronze medal, where he was once again up against Scottish opposition, and a player who had narrowly missed out on reaching the final.

Toby controlled the fight from the start and took a convincing lead which he held on to, to take an amazing bronze medal. This gave him valuable ranking points, which should see him progress higher in the ranking table.