HUDDERSFIELD has a new world champion!

And it’s a wonderful, personal, courageous triumph for judo star Dawn Netherwood.

She has just won the women’s world judo championships in Budapest, Hungary – an astonishing 35 years after first taking up the sport.

And she triumphed exactly 30 years after first competing in a world title bout and only months after returning to the sport after a 20-year break.

That first world fight was in New York and she finished with a silver medal.

But she went one better in Budapest with a stunning victory over the Italian Parrissillani in the Under 63 kg class.

She dropped down a weight to compete and felt fit after a brief diet to meet the weight.

The former Waterloo and Mirfield woman was ecstatic after her triumph.

“I did it.

“I was very determined and I wanted so much to become the new world champion.

“The fight didn’t last very long. In the first minute I threw her for Ippon with Harai Goshi, to win.

“The emotions were fantastic, as all my friends were there to cheer me on.

“I just fell to my knees and put my arms in the air.

“It was worth all the hard work and motivation to come back and win. I dedicated the title to my two sons, Swen and Loga, and to my family, and to my dear friend, Gerard Bailo, who left us too soon.

“Now I have to prepare for the next world championships which will be in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and I am already selected as I am the world champion.”

It’s a remarkable comeback for one of Huddersfield’s top international sportswomen, who is now 49.

She lives in Saulx Les Chartreux on the outskirts of Paris with her sons.

Swen, 19, is an artist at Beaux-Arts of Paris, and Logan, 17, is doing electrical studies at a local college.

She announced her comeback towards the end of last year and said: “I never stopped training.

“I am a personal coach at people’s homes – training them on a new invention called the power plate – and I have always kept myself fit, even if not for judo, and am in pretty good shape.

“It came to the stage, though, where I needed an objective in my life and some of my friends in judo asked me to do a training session for my club Chilly-Mazarin in Paris.

“I went there to do some work with the women’s section, some of whom were already training for the Europeans, and a number of them said I should take it up again because they felt sure I would win.”