Sam Delahay’s Olympic judo disappointment

Keynsham Judo Club star Sam Delahay's heartache at being overlooked for the Olympics has been temporarily eased after he was named as a West of England senior coach. The 24-year-old was left distraught after being omitted from the Great Britain squad for the Athens showpiece, despite winning silver in the Commonwealth Games two years ago.

And after claiming British Judo authorities gave him a "kick in the teeth" for leaving him out of the squad for the Games, he is looking forward to a potentially fruitful career developing the region's most talented youngsters.

"Being left out of the Olympic squad has probably helped me in a lot of ways," he explained.

"It means I've had more time to commit myself to the coaching side of things. I want to build a future for myself and this post - which basically means I'm head coach for the south west region - will help me achieve that.

"I've been given the post on a joint basis with a guy called Mark Conway and we'll be in charge of all youngsters from 16 upwards for the West of England Judo Association.

"It's all voluntary work, but it will help me become established on the coaching front."

The former British No 1 believes he has been frozen out by Great Britain selectors and has not ruled out quitting competition if his career in coaching takes off.

"It was a real kick in the teeth when I wasn't selected for the Olympics and I still haven't been given a reason why I was left out," he added.

"I worked hard for the last four years for nothing and the last Olympic qualifying event they allowed me to take part in was in March 2003, which is a joke.

"But I can put all of that right by teaching the West of England youngsters and hopefully some of them can succeed where it seems I've failed.

"But if the coaching takes off I will probably choose that over competing full-time.

"I'm coaching full-time in schools at the moment but this post will really help me in that respect and it will give my CV a big boost."

Despite placing a greater emphasis on coaching, Delahay does intend to carry on fighting and has set himself a short-term goal.

"I've been out injured with some dislocated ribs but I'm determined to get back into competition again," he added.

"The British Judo Association also took away my No 1 ranking so I'll be out to win that back as soon as possible."

Meanwhile, younger brother Joe is celebrating a double victory.

He won the West of England Senior Open Championships at Gloucester Leisure Centre and then took the English Open Championship title, which is a national ranking competition, in Worthing.

Joe travels to Poland on July 9 for an A class junior tournament and is then looking forward to the Junior Europeans and the Junior Worlds in September.