Ashley McKenzie won the all-English 60kg judo final against Sam Hall and hopes he can inspire kids with behavioural problems with his latest success.

Former Celebrity Big Brother star McKenzie has been doing this a lot longer than Hall and a veteran of three Olympic Games.

The 33-year-old was able to dictate the gold medal bout and won with two waza’ari throws in quick time to seal gold with Hall left to settle for silver.

McKenzie reflected afterwards on how much of an impact the sport has had on him.

“Judo has definitely turned my life around," he said.  "When I was a little boy I was always in trouble, I went to a special school. All I wanted to do was look up to my brother. My brother is an amazing character and I just couldn't live up to it, so I got in trouble to try and get attention.

“Life just went sour until a guy tried to take my Pokemon cards, I found out he did judo so I went to the local Judo club and that's when I started. I would love to inspire people with behavioural problems.

“It feels amazing. Eight years ago I won it and I’ve done it again today. Everyone says that I’m the old one in the group, but I couldn’t care less, I’ve got a gold.

“I'm happy I’ve done it in front of my family. I’m going to have a chilled night and I’m happy. I’ve done what I came to do, I wanted a gold and I got it.”

His opponent Hall came into the competition as one of the top seeds and favourites having won Grand Prix gold and Grand Slam bronze in the last year.

The 21-year-old breezed through rounds, beating Nauru’s Isamaela Solomon with two waza’ari throws inside a minute and then dispatching Welshman Daniel Rabbitt in a mere 18 seconds.


He also had far too much for Cypriot Petros Christodoulides that secured at least a silver medal and a much-anticipated all-English final with McKenzie.

But afterwards, Hall was downbeat but determined to put things right in the future.

“I’m disappointed. I felt I could have given more," he said.

“That’s the way judo goes, if everything’s right, it goes your way. Something wasn’t right, so I need to go back, look at it and see where I go from here.

“I’ll look back on this, reflect and move on to something at the end of the year.”

Acelya Toprak also took home a silver medal after losing her women's 57kg final to Canadian Christa Deguchi but looked to take the positives from a memorable experience.

She said: "I’m happy – a silver is always a little bit of a kick in the teeth as you want the gold.

“But the experience is amazing and something that I'm going to remember of the rest of my life.

"The crowd definitely spurred me on - there were people shouting my name and it was amazing to hear familiar voices.

"I’m going to look back at my fights, work on the things I need to work on and make sure I’m ready to take gold next time.”

And rounding off the medals in judo, Amy Platten won her bronze medal match over Malawi's Harriet Bonface in the 48kg competition and said she took inspiration from the triumphant England women's team.

She said: “I don't think it has sunk in yet. It was just so quick, I am speechless. Especially in judo, you can’t predict anything that is going to happen on the mat you have a game plan but it’s so unpredictable in this sport.

“I watched the match last night, it only gave me more motivation for today. I am a huge advocate for women's sport, I think it needs to be shouted about a bit louder.”