Judo. Canterbury judo emerges the strongest area taking five out of eight golds in the seniors.Oct 2014.

Engaged couple celebrate with two more titles.Many National and Commonwealth Judoka missing.

STACY SQUIRES/FAIRFAX NZ

Canterbury's Moira de Villiers and Jason Koster both added two more national title notches to their already impressive judo belts.

The  couple, who were engaged last week, now have 26 national titles between them after 

both won their weight class and the open category at the national championships in Christchurch on Saturday.

a 

Andrew Butterfield recently returned from a English teaching stint in the mountains of Gumma prefecture won the under-90kg men's section, the evergreen Graeme Spinks 52 years the second oldest competitor there 

 won the under-81kg and Kenga Kano the under-73kg. Five out of the eight senior men's titles will stay in Canterbury.

The oldest competitor there was Vitali Aliluev  from Auckland Uni judoi club. Vitali 49 yrs old old won the u100kg plus the two masters gold.

Vitali who has just come back from the Asian masters in Tokyo where he won a silver after after losing in the final to a Katayama who was in the Japanese olpmpic team to Beijing.

Judo New Zealand used the opportunity to present medallions to New Zealand's Commonwealth Games judoka who, including de Villiers and Koster, picked up five medals at the Glasgow Games.

Including the junior events, which continued yesterday, Canterbury were the most successful region at the nationals and tournament organiser Hugh Roberts was pleased with the breadth and depth of the region's talent.