Moberly Star John was celebrating his first Junior European Cup Gold medal at the weekend at Deva, Romania.

Weighing in at less than 92k, John fought in the u100k category. He was in typically combative form and after an opening round bye, his first contest was against MATTSSON from SWEDEN. John dominated the contest, which was decided in the first 30 seconds when John threw the Swede for Ippon.

John’s next contest was the semi final against KONCZ from ROMANIA. A very tough contest, with neither able to score during the 4 minute contest. With both on penalties, John was able to score a waz-ari in golden score to progress to his second European Junior  cup final in a little over a month.

The final was against the world number 9 ranked junior, DJORDA from SERBIA. In a very tactical contest, John was able to secure victory by a Yuko.  This victory (and the silver in Poland) has ensured that John will now move up into the top ten ranked juniors in the world, and remarkably, he has beaten 3 of the top 5 in recent weeks. John will be competing in the Junior World Championships in UAE in October for the US.

Good luck Johnny. Onwards and upwards