TWO members of Darlington Jujitsu Club returned triumphant from a national competition in Leeds last weekend as they both won gold medals at the Son Gokui Submission-Fighting Grappling Competition 2000.

Pitted against opponents who were bigger and heavier than themselves, Amy Lycett and Chris Horner used their technique to overcome the odds and the brute strength of the other competitors.

Amy has only been competing in jujitsu for seven months and at 5ft tall her chances of success were slim.

"It was open-weight because there wasn't many entrants at the competition," she said.

Explaining: "She was two stone heavier!"

"I was quite pleased because I managed to throw her."

Commenting on her final win she said: "I did a move called a side-mount and then choked her which meant I won automatically. It was a really good win."

Amy thanked her manager Rod Thompson for allowing the time off work to compete in the tournament.

On the way to his triumph, Chris was faced with the awesome task of beating a 6ft 4" policeman in his semi-final, although he had thought he'd been knocked-out in the first round.

"I wasn't too sure of the rules and I thought I'd lost."

Amazingly, Chris's easiest fight was the final against Paul James of Leeds. "He fought really well all the way through and I thought I was going to have a hard fight."

Chris also was presented with a special trophy for demonstrating the best techniques on the day.