EMILY Watson is Samurai Judo Club's latest success story after beating the cream of the country's young players to be crowned British Junior Champion.

The 11-year-old, who is rated as a potential future international, triumphed at the competition in Sheffield, just three years after she took up the sport.

Watson hails from a judo family, with father Dave a black belt and Samurai coach and younger brother Daniel an up-and-coming player.

She won the New Zealand championship during a spell down under around a year ago and since her return has trained hard to make her mark on the more competitive British scene.

Earlier this year, Watson and three Samurai clubmates helped the Midlands win silver at the British Team Championships and she won another silver at the National Kata Championships.

The British Junior Championships, however, was always her ultimate goal and after cruising to gold in the under-32 kilo category, the young green belt has now been selected for the British Cadet Squad.

Unstoppable Kelly Edwards completed a dream double for the Kidderminster club by grabbing their second gold at the British Junior Judo championships.

Edwards romped home in the under-44kilos weight division.

She looked in awesome form as she carved her way through to the final in a series of one-sided contests, each won within a minute.

In the final, Edwards' opponent was instantly on the receiving end of several strong attacks.

And the Samurai player finished her off by smoothly throwing her for maximum points and the gold medal with just one minute and five seconds on the clock.

The competition was the last of four events to establish the British rankings for 2006 and Edwards has finished top by a long way.

A controversial refereeing decision cost Kate Walker the chance of clinching gold in the under-63 kilos category.

The 16-year-old burst out of the blocks with a beautiful maximum point throw in less than 10 seconds of her first match.

Several more stylish wins saw her into the final against a Berkshire girl who Walker had beaten in their last six meetings.

Walker looked favourite to make it a magnificent seven when the referees gave an inexplicable minor score against her to the astonishment of the audience.

It was too late in the contest for Walker to equalize and she had to settle for silver.

She also finished in first place in the British rankings, having taken gold at the Scottish Open and silver at the Heart of England, the other two qualification events.

Tom Walker and Ryan Pitcock both looked on good form, with the former winning three contests, mainly with a superb rolling shoulder throw, and the latter winning two with some excellent work.

Katherine Lloyd Jones finished in fifth place after some good early work, and Rosie Tramontana and Becky Holmes both had some very good matches.

For details about starting judo visit www.samurai.org.uk