A TOP judo student has scooped a gold medal in an international competition.

Following a run of recent successes by East Durham and Houghall Community College's judo academy, Ben Quilter has taken the top award in the British Open competition at Crystal Palace. He beat off competition from the best judo talent from Spain, Belgium and France to win the prize.

Ben, 20, is visually impaired, and is ranked number one in the country for his weight in the visually impaired category.

He is also a member of the world class performance programme, and is due to fly to Japan for a training camp with the British visually-impaired squad