OKEHAMPTON Judo Club's Ella Percival has won her black belt at a special annual British Judo Council's course in St Ives.

Ella is the first female judo dan grade from Okehampton club for at least 30 years.  

The course is renowned for its tough grading at the end draws competitive players and big name coaches from all over the country, as well as guest coach this year Mr Hagawara, a Kodokan eighth dan, who is currently coaching in France.

Aiming for her brown belt and needing three wins from her blue belt group, Ella beat two girls by ippon (knockout) scores and narrowly missed out on beating a third after a hard fought battle which ended in a draw.

To give the ladies in the higher brown belt pool enough wins to gain their black belts, Ella and the player she drew against were moved up as the best blue belts. However, the two fighters battled their way through all three brown belts, neither one losing a fight.

The young martial artist beat two blue belts and three brown belts all by ippon, demonstrated all the required techniques including both the Nage no Kata and Katame no Kata all on the day. The president awarded her a very well deserved black belt, first dan.

After starting at the age of seven, Ella trained initially under sensei John Buxton, before his student, sensei Darren Bostock, took over running Okehampton Judo Club in 2005. Since then she has trained with sensei Aidan Bostock under sensei Roger and Barbara Downs at the Tamar Judo Centre in Saltash. She now coaches weekly at both the Okehampton and Tamar clubs.