INTERNATIONAL UPDATE - JOSH KATZ

  • Perth Oceania Open (Grand Prix Points): 3-4 Nov 19 – R16 loss to Lesiuk (UKR) (Grand Prix and European Open medalist, and eventual Bronze medalist) – Elbow injury after 3.5 mins at 2 Shidos to 1 ahead. Notwithstanding the way it ended, this was otherwise a perfect match for Josh, keeping up a high pace with good attacking Judo and defending well. He was (as were we) confident that he would have won this match in Golden Score but his arm was caught during a turnover causing ligament and tendon damage in the elbow and Josh had to concede the match. Lesiuk then lost to Germany but won his next 2 matches for Bronze.  Josh has since had surgery and is well on the way to recovery, likely to compete next at the Dusseldorf  Grand Slam 21-23 February. We wish the boys every success for their upcoming competitions and in all their Olympic qualifying competitions leading to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.