Recent news articles

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

A lot has happened in the last 2 months since our las Newsletter. We have had our small group of elite Junior and Senior athletes compete on the world stage and our much larger group of Junior and Senior athletes compete at a number of domestic competitions. Nathan and Rob are currently participating in the Senior National Training Camp in Melbourne in preparation for the Senior World Championships in Qatar followed which will be followed shortly after by IJF Grand Prix events in Austria and Tajikistan. Wishing Nathan all the best for these events. 

  • Class numbers remain healthy and the focus has been on technical development as we soon move into the Nationals preparation phase. With the NSW State Team Training Camp coming up this weekend, followed by State Squad sessions, it will be a busy time for the many Budokan athletes preparing for Nationals.  5 Budokan Coaches are playing a major role in this year’s State Squad. Kerrye is one of the 5 Junior Team Coaches, Rob is one of the 5 Senior Team Coaches, Liam is the Senior Kyu Grades Team Coach, Franz is the No Limits Team Coach, Dale is one of the two Kata Coaches and Liam and Franz are the Veterans Team Coaches.

 

  • We have now established a new supplier relationship with Ippon.Gear Judogis who manufacture high quality Judogis for club-level use as well as IJF approved Gis for international competition. Club prices are RRP minus a 20% discount. We sell the IJF approved (Red Label) Gis at cost to the club. We will retain our supply agreement for our Budokan embroidered Gis which are still great value for money.

 I mentioned in our last Newsletter that all our coaches, committee members and current support parents are volunteers passionate about improving the club. We have been seeking support from new people to tap into available skills and increase our capacity but to date no one has come forward. So we will maintain our high standards of service and progress on the critical areas but may have to limit some of our other activities.  Please talk to me if you might be interested and need more information.Enjoy the Newsletter and wishing all our athletes great training and great experiences at the club and in your future competitions.

INTERATIONAL UPDATE

  • Georgia (Tbilisi) Grand Slam, 24-26 Mar 23 (Nathan Katz) – With one strong win against Hadad (LBN) by Ippon with a spinning Tai-Otoshi, Nathan was then up against World Ranked #24 Kyrgyzbaev (KAZ) in the Round of 32. Nathan did well here, however the referee seemed generous with penalties which did not allow the match to run its course. Both athletes were given Shidos early after which Nathan was given another one for defensive posture which was quite unwarranted. Nathan was competitive in the match putting in some strong Seoi-Nage attacks. Past halfway he dropped in for an attack and KAZ pushed forward. The referee believed Nathan’s arm brushing against KAZ’s leg impeded the progress and Nathan was given another (harsh) Shido ending the match. Despite this Nathan showed good intensity and commitment and the gap for a few wins at this level is now very small.

 

  • Antalya (Turkey) Grand Slam, 31 Mar – 2 Apr 23 (Nathan Katz) – had a good win against Berliner (USA) and in the Round of 16 had a great fight against World Ranked #13 Flicker (ISR) going into Golden Score (GS) a Shido ahead. 2 mins into GS Nathan looked like he was going to attack but Flicker got in first with a Sode for Waza-Ari. So close to a Quarter Final match and although disappointed this time, Nathan will inevitably break through to the next round and beyond soon. After the competition he had a great training camp in Turkey followed by another solid training camp in Hungary before coming home. He is participating in the National Training Camp in Melbourne (24 – 29 Apr 23) before heading off to the World Championships (Doha, Qatar) scheduled 7 – 13 May. Limited to only the World ranked (WRL) top 100 in each division, at WRL #45, we wish Nathan all the best in this event. He is the only male in the Australian Team for this event.

 

  • Bremen (Germany) Cadet Men’s Masters (25-26 Mar 23) – Max Zollinger
  • Thuringa (Germany) Cadet Women’s Cup – Bianca Tandean

 

  • Max won his first two matches in Bremen, the first against a Dutch athlete by Koshi-Jime (strangle) and had a solid third match which he unfortunately lost by Tani-Otoshi and which put him out of the competition. Bianca was very competitive in her match against Netherlands putting in some good attacks. Well into the match and trying to pressure her opponent, she pushed forward once too much getting caught with a drop technique putting her out of the competition.

 

  • Teplice (Czech Republic) Cadet European Cup (8-9 Apr 23) - Max competed against Orlandea (GER) in U/60s which had 83 competitors and Bianca competed against Sutovic (MNE) in U/57s with 65 participants. These Cadet events in Europe are huge and our guys were introduced to competitions where the first-round draw was a Round of 128 positions. Unfortunately, both lost their first matches, both learning valuable lessons and both picking up on areas needed for improvement. They also had fantastic experiences at the international camps in which they participated and which probably provided greater developmental value than the actual competitions, providing opportunities to train with many European Cadets who compete regularly on the international European circuit. Well done to our youngest international athletes and wishing you both all the best in your future international careers.

DOMESTIC UPDATE – SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL OPEN – 26 FEBRUARY

Congratulations to the 31 Budokan athletes who contested 39 divisions winning 25 (64%) medals:4 Gold, 10 Silver and 11 Bronze medals plus a number of unplaced athletes with matches won. Details follow:                                                                                                                                               Junior Girls:

  • Gold:                   Junning Mak
  • Silver:                 Joy Ma

Junior Boys:

  • Silver:                 Isaac Murkins
  • Bronze:              Levi Murkins, Jeremy Tan
  • 5th:                       Donny Zhang, Leon Park, William Dong

Senior Girls:

  • Silver:                 Dasha Platonov, Lilly Zollinger, Tamsin Black
  • Bronze:              Eva Murkins, Shanning Mak

Junior Boys:

  • Gold:                   Nicholas Platonov
  • Bronze:              Momo Jiang
  • 5th:                       Daniil Savytskyi, Johnny Ma
  • 9th:                       Ethan Zhang, Marcus Liao, Ben Zollinger, Tim Reshanov

Cadet Women:

  • Gold:                   Bianca Tandean
  • Bronze:              Jaeda Liao

Cadet Men:

  • Bronze:              Crosby Peake, Aaron Xu
  • 7th :                      Demin Cai
  • 9th :                      Flynn Mogilin

Junior Women:

  • Silver:                 Clarissa Vumbaca
  • Bronze:              Bianca Tandean

Junior Men:

  • Silver:                 Ali Yuldashev
  • 9th:                       Aaron Xu,
  • Other:                 Flynn Mogilin

Senior Women:

  • Silver:                 Clarissa Vumbaca, Bianca Tandean

Senior Men:

  • Bronze:              Ali Yuldashev
  • Other:                 Flynn Mogilin

No Limits Women:

  • Bronze:              Lynne McCredden

No Limits Men:

  • Gold and Silver:  Bernhard Tandean

DOMESTIC UPDATE – MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL OPEN 11- 12 MARCH

Congratulations our small team of 9 athletes who went south of the border to contest 12 divisions winning 9 (75%) medals: 4 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze, plus a number of unplaced athletes with matches won. Details follow:                                                                                                               Senior Girls:

  • Gold:                   Lilly Zollinger

Senior Boys:

  • Gold:                   Nicholas Platonov
  • Silver:                 Ben Zollinger
  • Bronze:              Daniil Savytskyi

Cadet Women:

  • Gold:                   Bianca Tandean

Cadet Men:

  • Gold:                   Max Zollinger
  • Bronze:              Aaron Xu
  • 4th:                       Demin Cai
  • 7th:                       Flynn Mogilin

Junior Women:

  • Silver:                 Bianca Tandean

Junior Men:

  • 5th:                       Aaron Xu

Senior Women:

  • Silver:                 Bianca Tandean

DOMESTIC UPDATE – NSW STATE TITLES 18-19 MARCH

Congratulations to the 27 Budokan athletes who contested 30 divisions at the State Titles resulting in 10 State Titles won and 15 medals (50%), those being: 10 Gold, 5 Silver, 4 Bronze, plus 3 x 4th/5th places. Great results considering we had a number of athletes out with injuries. Additionally, Bernhard and Bjorn Tandean won Silver on the Senior Katame-No-Kata competition and Trent Black won Silver in the Junior Nage-No-Kata competition. Competition details follow.                                                                                                                                                                                    Junior Girls

  • 1st                         U/36kg              Junning Mak
  • 3rd                        U/36kg              Joy Ma

Junior Boys

  • 3rd                        U/34kg              Levi Murkins
  • 5th                         U/34kg              Donny Zhang
  • 9th                         U/34kg              Trent Black
  • 1st                         U/38kg              Isaac Murkins
  • 2nd                        U/50kg              Leon Park

Senior Girls

  • 2nd                        U/40kg              Dasha Platonov
  • U/P                      U/48kg              Jaslyn Dhanoa
  • 1st                         U/50kg              Eva Murkins
  • 2nd                        U/50kg              Lilly Zollinger
  • 1st                         U/57&63kg     Tamsin Black
  • U/P                      U/57&63kg     Shanning Mak
  • U/P                      U/63kg              Shanning Mak

Senior Boys

  • 1st                         U/36kg              Ethan Zhang
  • 3rd                        U/36kg              Johnny Ma
  • 1st                         U/40kg              Nicholas Platonov
  • 2nd                        U/40kg              Daniil Savytskyi
  • 9th                         U/50kg              Yusef Helal
  • 5th                         U/55kg              Ben Zollinger

Cadet Women

  • U/P                      U/70&O/70    Anita Nourafshan                     

Cadet Men

  • 1st                         U/50kg              Crosby Peake
  • U/P                      U/50kg              Demin Cai
  • 1st                         U/55kg              Aaron Xu
  • U/P                      U/90kg              Daniel Holley

Junior Men

  • 3rd                        U/60kg              Aaron Xu
  • 1st                         U/66kg              Ali Yuldashev

Senior Men

  • 1st                         U/66kg              Ali Yuldashev
  • 4th                         U/100kg           Matt Hull

Veteran Men

  • 2nd                        U/81kg              Scott Young