National judo award for Bedmond Village youngster (From Watford Observer)

Bedmond Village youngster Thomas Lish wins national judo award

12:44pm Tuesday 5th March 2013 in Sport

Bedmond Village's Thomas Lish has jointly won the British Judo Council National Award for contribution to Kata with his partner Tori Cleevely.

The 12-year-old St Albans Judo member has battled debilitating ME for the last two years and is working hard to recover from the chronic fatigue illness.

Lish has won a string of awards over the last couple of year. He landed a gold in the 2012 British Judo Council Closed National Championship fighting while he picked up two victories in two different categories of Kata.

He has won gold for the last two years where he was crowned national Kimino Champion (Kata).

Lish picked up first place as the British Judo Council Kimino champion last year and he was also the Katamano champion.

Lish attended an awards dinner at Charing Cross Hotel with his dad and brother. The talented youngster was delighted to scoop the top prize along with Cleevely who he has trained with for the last couple of years.

His brother Paddy also received recognition at the evening. He came home with a certificate and a prize from the Lord Tope bursary, in recognition of a judoka who overcomes special needs or difficulties in order to compete.

Paddy overcomes a chronic bowel condition in order to train hard and enthusiastically and the nomination recognises his huge commitment to doing his best in the sport.