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JUDO SUPERSTAR BAUL AN (KOREA) WILL VISIT BUDOKAN - SAVE THE WEEKEND OF 28-29 JUNE

As mentioned in my introduction, we are incredibly proud to announce that 2 x Olympic medallist, World Champion and multiple World medallist Baul An will be coming to Budokan in 2 month’s time. Information flyers will be available soon and we will post on social media to allow members of other clubs to attend. 

  • Dates:              Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 June.
  • Times:             Juniors U/11s, U/13s, U/15s – morning time TBA
  • Cadets and older –afternoon time TBA
  • Grade:             Minimum Grade Orange belt
  • Cost:               for one or both days - Budokan members - $50; Non-Budokan members: $100               
  • Where:            Budokan Judo Club

Baul An is an absolute Judo superstar and legend and we are very lucky to have him come to our club. Please support these sessions

INTERNATIONAL UPDATE

Cadet (U/18) and Junior (U/21) Panamerican Oceania Championships 18-19AprilClarissa Vumbaca and Crosby Peake with Kerrye Katz coaching 

  • Crosby Peake and Clarissa Vumbaca competed in the Pan-American Oceania Championships in Lima Peru as part of the 13 strong National Cadet and Junior Teams. Crosby competed in Cadets and Junior Men U/60kg divisions and Clarissa in the Junior Women’s U/52kg division. Kerrye is one of the two National Coaches for these events. 

 

  • Crosby’s first match in Cadets was against Guatemala. This was a short match and unfortunately the action was off camera but it seems as though Crosby countered a forward throw. As Coach in the chair, Kerrye indicated Ippon and the referee ruled a head dive to Guatemala giving Croz the win. In his second match against Argentina, Croz was caught with a left drop Seoi for Yuko at 1 minute and at 2m30 caught Waza-Ari with drop right Seoi and held down, putting him in repechage where he faced Guatemala. Croz was ahead by Yuko and Shido at 2 minutes. A minute later he was caught with Deashi (foot sweep) and held down which put him out and placed him 7th.

 

  • Clarissa’s first match in Juniors was against Paraguay. At 45s she countered her opponent for Waza-Ari and following up strongly on the ground to get the win with a hold down. In her match against Peru, her opponent conceded an early Shido and then in an aggressive grip exchange, Clarissa was caught with Makikomi for Waza-Ari. Despite some aggressive attacking and groundwork, this is how the match ended.

 

  • Crosby’s first match in Juniors was against Guatemala. Good first exchange from Croz with Uchimata but 30sec in, both athletes made simultaneous attacks with Croz having a good go at the armlock. Yuko was scored to GUA. Solid grip control and strangle attempt from Croz was followed by another simultaneous attack with Yuko scored by GUA from Gake. Shortly after GUA dropped in for Kata-Guruma at the same time Croz attacked for Kouchi and Ippon was scored.

 

  • Crosby was also part of the Cadet Team’s event in which Australia won Silver. In the process he scored a lovely Ippon off spinning Uchimata against Peru. Congratulations guys. They are currently in the middle of a 3-day camp before leaving Peru on Thusday.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Welcome to all new club members. We hope that you are enjoying your Judo experience with the Budokan family. Membership is steady at 210 and there is a lot going on. This Newsletter contains an update to the #1 April Newsletter with a view to keep you informed before the news gets dated. Two very big events await Budokan Judo Club, both adding huge value to our membership development. 

  1. Corporate Sponsorship.
  • In the last couple of weeks, I sent out an appeal seeking your support for our Corporate Sponsorship project by identifying contacts that we could approach. We will start small and trial our presentation to see what works before approaching larger companies. If you have any contacts in business, organisations with grants programs, Japan / pro-Judo corporates, or contacts/relationship with the media, please let us know.

 

  • I can’t stress how important this project is to the club. We want to better support our national representative athletes and continue with our building improvements without relying on Government grants.
  • In particular, to provide better services to the club’s growing membership and build a sustainable club with continued growth whilst achieving its high-performance goals, we want to better reward and incentivise our best people to take on coaching roles in the club. To do this and not blow out our fee structure requires external support and right now we are in the best position to make approaches in this area. In the images below, you can see some of our BIG goals and also the $$ needed to support them.

 

  • If you are unsure, feel free to talk to any of our passionate sub-committee members. Your help could be as simple as letting us know if you bought a car from one of the Castle Hill dealers.

 

  • We plan to hold a Budokan Committee Meeting on Monday 5th May at 8.00pm at the club to brief our Committee on this project and also to provide an update on our initiatives to introduce a new membership management system. Interested club members are also welcome to attend.

 

  • Our Sponsorship Sub-Committee is Zsuzsanna Holley, Masha Buzhor, and me.  If you think you can help, please talk to us or drop us an email. Zsuzsanna’s email is zsuzsaholley@outlook.com, Masha’s is masha.buzhor@gmail.com and mine is katzfamily@iinet.net.au.   
  • Your knowledge of an important contact or organisation, or a significant purchase from an organisation could open huge doors for the club and take us to the next level! 

  

  1. Superstar weekend Clinic with 2 x Olympic Medallist, World Champion, 2 x World Bronze Medallist
  • We are super fortunate that for the second time this year, Budokan will host a weekend clinic with a Judo superstar. Only 2 months ago were proud to host Tommy Macias from Sweden, former World Silver Medallist and European Champion. This time we are proud to host Baul An from Korea. Details are below. There will be separate sessions for Juniors and Seniors and Budokan athletes will have a reduced price. All fees will go towards An’s trip expenses. I want to thank Thomas Lee for making this event possible. Amazing effort from Thomas.

 Until next time, enjoy your Judo -  “see you on the mat”.                            Rob K

KEY DATES & CALENDAR

2025 major events 

  1. 1.           4 – 6 Apr 25             Melbourne International Open – Victoria
  2. 2.           27-28 Apr 25            NSW State Training Camp
  3. 3.           3-4 May 25               Mandurah Cadet & Junior Oceania Cup (WA)
  4. 4.           3 May – 7 Jun incl.  No Budokan Saturday Competition classes for Juniors or Seniors
  5. 5.           4 May 25                  Central Coast Open
  6. 6.           5 May 25                  8.00pm Committee Meeting at club re Sponsorship
  7. 7.           5 – 8 Jun 25             National Championships - Gold Coast Sport & Leisure Centre, Carrara
  8. 8.           9 – 10 Jun25            National Championships Training Camp, Carrara
  9. 9.           14 Jun 25                Budokan Saturday Competition classes re-commence
  10. 10.        21 Jun 25                 Club set-up for competition
  11. 11.        22 Jun 25                 Budokan hosted NSW Mons and U/11s competition – NOTE THIS IS A WEEK EARLIER TO ALLOW OUR SPECIAL                                                EVENT OVER THE 28-29 JUNE WEEKEND
  12. 12.        28-29 Jun 25           SPECIAL BAUL AN SEMINAR AT BUDOKAN (1 SESSION EACH DAY FOR                                            JUNIORS AND 1 EACH DAY FOR SENIORS)      

                      26 Oct 25                Budokan hosted NSW Mons, U/11s, U/13s competition

2025 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL OPEN 4-6APR25

See the attached document. 16 Budokan athletes competed in 27 divisions at the Melbourne International Open. Rob, Kerrye and Nathan attended this competition to provide coaching support for our guys. 

  • 14 athletes contested 25 open age/grade divisions winning:
  • 20 medals: 6 Gold, 3 Silver and 11 Bronze plus 3 x 5th / 7th / 9th places 
  • This means 80% of divisions entered resulted in a medal and 24% of divisions entered resulted in a Gold medal. Compared to 2024, this represents 7 more athletes, 13 more divisions, 9 more medals and 1 more Gold. 
  • With Kyu Grades and Veterans divisions, another 5th place was taken. Unfortunately, our sole veteran had to contest 2 age divisions younger than his normal category. JudoManager, the platform that recorded all matches for the competition, indicates that we were the best performing club on Saturday, and the third best performing club overall, which is impressive given the very small number of athletes we had competing on Sunday. Well done to all Budokanis – still many lessons learned from this one, which is really valuable for future focus.
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