THE home of two talented Dalgety Bay judoka has more medals to display after a double podium success recently.

Siblings Kirsty and Angus Marsh were in action at the Midlands Age Bands Judo Championships, held at the GB national training centre in Walsall, on January 27 and both reached the podium in their respective age categories.

Kirsty, 17, was competing for only the second time since returning from an 18-month lay-off at the Scottish Junior Open last month, where she won a hard-earned bronze medal in the women’s under-52kg category.

It has been a long road for the Inverkeithing High School pupil since rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) while sparring in August 2016 but she continued her comeback in style by taking first place in this event.

Competing in the junior (under-21) women’s under-52kg class, Kirsty won all four of her fights against less experienced opposition within the regulation four minutes, giving her an additional confidence boost as well as acting as useful preparation ahead of travelling with the Judo Scotland junior team for the Danish Open in mid-February.

Not to be outdone, younger brother Angus, 13, won his first medal on the UK circuit in the Midlands having made the podium at the Scottish Championships for the past three years.

Angus, who, like his sister, is a member of Dunfermline’s Destination Judo Club, was competing in the under-42kg pre-cadet (under-15) boys’ weight class for the first time and lost out in the quarter-final of the main draw.

After that though, he produced a superb switch throw for ippon to advance to the bronze-medal match against recent British medallist Bailey Mutseyetkwa, of Highland Budokan JC.

The West Fifer controlled the grips from the start of the contest and, midway through the bout, produced what would turn out to be the winning kouchi gari throw to score waza ari before defending the advantage superbly to clinch third place as time ran out for the Highlander.

Angus will hope to build on this bronze-medal performance in his next national event, this year’s British Schools’ Judo Championships to be held in Sheffield in March.