White Dragon Judo Club

It was a good day for White Dragon Judo Club at the 2017 Senior Nationals. With 5 fighters and the excellent coaches Dave Burke, Derick Wellman, and the legendary Randy Pierce, the club was well represented. Byron Helmrich had some impressive performances, hitting an awesome foot sweep in his first match and earning a silver medal in the brown belt 66kg weight class. Adnan Gutic fought in the longest match of the day, with 25 minutes of total mat time in his first fight. He finally won when his incredible conditioning proved too much for his opponent, allowing him to score a throw. Immediately after, he maintained his lockdown on the 81kg visually impaired weight class, moving straight into further matches and dominating the opposition with superior ground fighting. He took home a gold medal. Jay Baker entered a tough division, being the only non-black belt in the pool. Despite this, he fought hard in some very competitive and thrilling matches, displaying a defensive agility not before seen by the skilled fighter. BE Bryan Enlow had his work cut out for him, fighting in the open weight category, ages 30 to 50. He fought a strategic game, using his gripping and O Soto Gari to control his opponents, battling his way to a bronze medal. Philipp Vojta got off to a slow start but fought his way to a bronze medal, dominating his opponent in his final match of the day with an Ippon Seoi Nage, moving straight into a choke. Overall, Team White Dragon made great improvement since the previous year, with most of the competitors either moving into more difficult divisions, or placing higher than they had done previously.