Montreal (Canada) Grand Prix 5th July 2019 (Nathan and Josh Katz):
- Josh Katz: At the 3.5 minute mark, after a lot of Ashi-Waza (leg/foot) attacks, Josh set up a lovely Morote Seoi-Nage scoring Ippon against his awkward Kenyan opponent in the Round of 32. In the next round (R16) Josh was up against Grand Slam medallist and WRL (World Ranking List) Top 15 Camberley team-mate Ashley McKenzie. A good fight with some great reflexes from Josh to stay with Ashley close to scoring a counter off a Kata-Guruma attack and also getting in a couple of good attacks in himself. Just after 2 minutes, the match saw Ashley's classic drop Tai-Otoshi catch Josh for Ippon which unfortunately put Josh out. Both matches well played. Josh's time for a finals block in a GP/GS is very close.
- Nathan Katz: Nathan had a first round bye and drew a young Canadian (CAN) De Jesus in R16. With good gripping and some strong attacks, Nathan scored Waza-ari with Uchi-Mata and later submitted CAN with a nice transition to ground with Shime-Waza (strangle). His next match against his former Rio 2016 opponent Moroccan, Bassou, 36 on the WRL who defeated ALG. This was a tough match which Nathan dominated with aggressive gripping and Seoi-Nage attacks forcing 3 Shido penalties on his MAR opponent. This put Nathan in the Semi-Final against van Gansbeke BEL 38 WRL. Nathan was well in this match going into Golden score 2 Shidos to 1 down. threatened by Kouchi and Ne-Waza (ground work) but defending well, Nathan also put in some good forward attacks visibly wearing BEL down. Another attack from Nathan was defended putting Nathan in defence on the ground where he was submitted with Shime-Waza (strangle). In his first Bronze medal match at a Grand Prix, Nathan played with good intensity against Valois (CAN). At 3 minutes with no scores Nathan was caught for Waza-Ari with Tomoe-Nage whilst coming up from the ground after his attack. A great effort from Nathan fighting with composure and intensity for his first ever Grand Prix 5th place.
- Josh's R16 result and Nathan's 5th place come with valuable Olympic qualifying points. Well done boys and all the best for your preparation and next event, the Budapest GP next Friday 12th July.
Budapest (Hungary) Grand Prix 13th July 2019 (Nathan and Josh Katz):
- Josh Katz: Josh was drawn in the R64 against Enkhtaivan (MGL) whom he lost to by 2 Waza-Ari counters in the Asia Pacific Championships in April and who went on to win Bronze in that event. This time Josh was much closer to his opponent putting in some strong attacks and also defending well. At Golden Score (GS) Josh was 2 Shidos down; however, these were very harsh, in particular the Shido after his Tai-Otoshi attack. 20 seconds into GS, MGL attacked with Kata-Guruma which he had attempted previously and this time caught Josh for Waza-Ari putting him out.
- Nathan Katz: Nathan’s R64 match was against WRL Top 20 Gaitero (ESP) who Nathan lost to at the Tel-Aviv Grand Prix in January. That match went less than 3 minutes and Nathan was 2 Shidos down getting caught in Ne-Waza for Ippon. As was the case for Josh, this time, Nathan was much closer to his Spanish opponent, perhaps his only major error getting backed up too much. There was some crazy refereeing in this match with a strangle being left on for a very long time and later Osae-Komi (hold down) being called and Ippon awarded to ESP, then being downgraded to Waza-Ari, then reviewed and no score awarded. The hold-down should never have been called. Nathan conceded 2 Shidos for edge infringements within 30 seconds of full-time. In GS, Nathan used Ashi-Waza and Uchi-Mata well and defended one strong drop Sode after which he was penalised his third Shido putting him out. Gaitero went on to win 3 more matches for the Bronze medal.
Both boys showed significant improvement over their opponents although were very disappointed at the outcome. Next competition, the Senior World Championships in Tokyo 25th August.