Lloyd Sweeps his way to Judo Success

Grosvenor pupil Lloyd Andrews, Year Twelve, pictured alongside Dr. Vasey, who has enjoyed a plethora of Judo-related successes over the past two years.

Congratulations to Grosvenor pupil Lloyd Andrews, Year Twelve, whose excellence in the field of judo culminated in him being selected to represent Northern Ireland at the recent 2019 Commonwealth Games Championships, held in Walsall, England on Sunday 29th September.

Lloyd’s selection for this prestigious event came following a number of years of phenomenal success, during which time he has taken the judo world by storm. Most recently, for example, Lloyd became the youngest competitor to attend the Northern Ireland Judo Federation Dan Grading, held at Campbell College on Sunday 6th October, where his flawless record of five wins from five fights saw him promoted to the elite level of First Dan Black Belt. In addition, Lloyd has enjoyed sustained success in the judo arena over recent years: as well as being shortlisted to represent Team GB at the 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan, in July, Lloyd was also the winner of the ‘Junior Male Sports Personality of the Year’ award at the 2018 Belfast City Council Sports Awards, held in the impressive surroundings of Belfast City Hall.

Furthermore, Lloyd has secured gold medals in a plethora of high-profile competitions over the past two years; the highlights of which were his victories at the All-Ireland Judo Championships in both December 2017 and 2018 and, most impressively, the British Schools’ Judo Championships in March 2018.

Lloyd, who has been a Mary Peters Trust-funded athlete since 2017 and a GLL (UK) Sport Foundation-funded athlete since 2018, trains twice a week with ‘Simply Judo’ Senior Coach Scott Mayne; himself a former Grosvenor pupil, while in preparation for the aforementioned Commonwealth Championships, Lloyd was also invited to train with coaches from the Northern Ireland Performance Programme throughout the summer. In addition, to complement his club training and in preparation for forthcoming GB ranking events, Lloyd has been attending ‘JudoScotland’ High Performance residential training camps in Edinburgh three times per year, as well as the five day ‘Go Tsunoda’ International Training Camp in Spain over each of the the past three years.

The coming twelve months will see Lloyd compete for GB Judo Cadet Squad selection, with the overall aim of competing at the 2020 Commonwealth Judo Championships in South Africa, the 2021 Commonwealth Judo Championships in Malta, the 2021 Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Very well done to Lloyd on his incredible judo-related achievements over the past three years; all at Grosvenor wish him the best of luck as he continues his endeavors over the remainder of the current season and beyond.