This is a big senior open and the selected senior England team went out to compete, as i haven’t long been a senior this competition was a big step, although as always i believe if i get it right on the day i’m good enough to win, facing a very tough competition with my first round against the same french fighter i beat for the bronze medal at the Junior Europeans in 2012. Beating him 4-1 showed me and the coaches i had progressed since then and i fought through 3 more fights to the semi finals facing a very big and forming world medalist there, this was my first taste at a 4 minute round and with the tough fights id had, its safe to say i was a little tired. 1 minute in he hit me with a front kick which left me feeling like i had no lungs left, i fought on gaining a point back  but eventually having no energy left to get that second one back and losing the fight 2-1, my opponent went on to win and i had the bronze, leaving me disappointed. On reflection my performance was good and i believe that if i had more experience and my conditioning was a little better i could have won. Then finding out I was the first English male to medal at this championships for some years and the only male to medal this time from England made it a little better. I now know that this is a big step up to seniors but one which i believe i can do very successfully IF I HAVE THE SUPPORT I NEED. 

Please don’t hesitate to contact me in anyway if you know anyway i can receive sponsorship or help off anybody, as this is the only thing holding me back from reaching my full potential in the future….. thanks

Training going well at the moment strength and conditioning has got a lot better and started track/sprint sessions now as well, also working on my throwing and close fighting more, an area which hasn’t been my strongest place in the past but all should be good for the Junior Europeans in February.

Its great to be busy again with the regional championships last weekend, pre-training this weekend, competing the France next week, back to pre-training the following week then its time to the Junior Europeans in Turkey the week after, would love to say that’s it then for a couple of weeks but no. I then have senior European selections and the British University championships later in February.

Keep checking this page for more updates and hopefully some videos to come soon.

The first inter regional competition set off with the midlands team facing the south. Tom was the last competitor in the team with the idea that if they needed points that he could do it, and with the midlands team trailing points going into the final match that’s exactly what was needed. The fight was tough with toms opponent trying to get very close and hold on to tom not allowing either of them to perform many techniques, this led to his opponent being disqualified from the match for holding on to tom, and so a score of 8-0 awarded meaning the midlands beat the south. This was toms first fight for nearly 2 months so it was never going to be his best performance, with tom clearly disappointed with his performance. The next match was against the north with tom being picked as the number one fighter to get the team off to a good start, he faced Aaron Swales and he seemed to be getting back into it, Aaron has also represented England at a senior level, but tom quickly got up to 7-0 and then saw out the remainder of the match claiming a good win for the team. Unfortunately going into the match the team were already down 16-0 due to injured fighters and the gap was too much for the midlands team so the north gained the win, and with the south comfortably beating the north it went down the points difference with the south claiming the victory and the midlands coming in second with the north in third. Disappointing result for the midlands team as they should have claimed first place after beating the south. But for the first event on toms calender this year it wasn’t too bad, but improvement can certainly be made as the he gets back into regular competition leading up to the Junior European championships in February with an event in France and pre-training still to go. But as of now things are looking positive for these events.