My first premier league event, and with the world number 3,4,5 and many other top ranked senior competitors in my section adding up to 65 fighters this sure wasn’t going to be easy. My first three fights were good with me winning them and having a very disciplined style, necessary at this level. i made it to the pool final facing Horuna of Ukraine.  A previous world and European University champion and a dominant senior taking out the world NO.4 from last year out 7-0 he was definitely on form that day. the first stages of the fight were close but both of us being tentative to attack eventually i did but got countered with a kick, being down i had to go and i think the kick damaged my confidence a little. i started the fight hard leaving us both exhausted but i got picked to the point and caught by a far more experienced senior. I lost the fight and Horuna beat the 2012 European champion who is also the World NO.3 in the next round leaving me in repocharge and facing the world NO.5. i lost to my opponent and this left me with a top 8 finish. Horuna went on to beat the world No.4 in the final and my other opponent himself the current pan-american champion also beat the 2012 European champion for the bronze. losing to the winner and bronze medalist made it a little better and i realised after i had done well to get a top 8 finish in a world series event at 18 in the senior section. once again i got the furthest out of any English fighter in this international event putting me in the good position for the individual spot for the senior European selections 2013.

Here are a few of the English squad that went out who i travelled with, including sensei Paul Newby- Assistant National Coach 

Here they are, the finals of the BUCS championships. Saturday kicked off with team events, team Birmingham (UoB) went off to a great start, i beat my opponent 8-0 and rest of the team sealed the win, we went through 2 more rounds and faced a strong team from Coventry in the semi finals, i fought a good fighter and put in a good performance but picking up a eye injury in the closing stages winning the fight a comfortable 7-1. in the final i once again won my fight 8-0 and the team came down to the very last fighter with team Birmingham taking the win and becoming the British University team champions, this is the first time the University of Birmingham have ever won a gold at BUCS and shows just what a bright future the team has. However i couldn’t compete the next day due to the eye injury, although it had got a lot better my coach decided it wasn’t the best decision for me to fight as blood was still in my eyeball. Plus with he senior Dutch open, a world series event, and  senior European Selections not too far away i had to think long term prioritize my busy schedule of competitions. No Doubt me a Team Birmingham will be back in force next year with me being named the captain of the team for next year.

unfortunately is was not to be this time, i had a first round bye and faced France in the second round, a tough draw, the french fighter was very strong and the fight was close seeing me win it 2-1 and into the second round to face Ukraine  against Ukraine i came out strong quickly scoring two 1 point punches, the opponent threw a kick which although it went past the head on video scored. 3-2 down i pressured him for 2 minuets  finally i got it back with about 20 seconds to go, with me attacking for easily the majority of the fight i thought i had the decision even through he came hunting for his point thinking he would lose decision, with it tied at 3-3 everyone, even my opponent clearly thought i had won, but the decision went 3-2 against me taking me out of the competition  i bitter ending for this years junior europeans as i felt i was a strong medal contender even though i still have another 2 1/2 years in this section

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.

Tom has been selected to compete in the senior world championships to be held in paris later this year in November, the competition is set to be explosive with a 17000 seat stadium already sold out months ago

National Express have sponsored tom, giving him free travel all over the UK and Europe for free, massive thank you to them

Tom returned from tangier last week with the gold medal, after having 4 fights and winning 8-0, 9-0, 10-1 and 3-1 in the final. This is the second year running Tom has won this competition.