With the Junior State Camp being held 1st and 2nd May and the Senior Camp 8th and 9th May followed by State Squad training leading to the Nationals 11th – 14th June, Budokan’s Saturday class for competition level athletes Junior Boys/Girls and older, will be suspended until 19th June. If you are not competing in the Nationals but wish to participate in some of the NSW State Squad training sessions, please see Kerrye or Rob.
For the first time since commencing the Monday Senior Beginners/Kyu Grades class, all athletes completing a grading from White Belt passed their grading well enough to go to Orange Belt. This is a great achievement and congratulations go to all these athletes in their first step up the belt ladder:
Please note that any prospective new Senior Beginner (turning 15 years old in 2021) may start the Monday class on 3rd May or 10th May or 17th May after which new starters will have to wait until the start of the next school term.
The second State international Open competition for the year saw a very experienced group of Budokan Juniors and a very young contingent in the Senior divisions. The 11 Junior and Senior Boys and Girls all medalled which was very impressive: 4 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze medals. The Seniors all dug deep and got the benefit of significant mat time. 4 of our Cadets competed in 3 age categories with one athlete having 8 matches in the day. Including Veterans, we had 9 athletes compete in 18 Senior divisions winning 7 medals: 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze.
Longest matches were by Will Zollinger who had 2 Golden Score matches back-to-back one being 3 minutes GS (7 minutes total) and the other GS 3m40s (7m40s), nearly 15 minutes in 2 matches. Great effort. Notably, our entries in this event were significantly less than in previous years, mainly due to injuries, athletes overseas, or some deciding to delay their return to competition.
Junior Boys/Girls
Senior Boys/Girls
Cadet Men/Women
Junior Men/Women
Senior Men/Women
Veteran Men
Kata Gold to the following:
Nathan and Josh have now returned home having spent two weeks in quarantine following a large competition block overseas. This was a very difficult block for many reasons and in addition to the normal pressures of international competition, the challenges this time were significant. These include: last minute changes in flights and training base location, extensive COVID testing, no access outside of hotel rooms and training venues, back-to-back competitions in a very short period, illnesses, injury management, funding issues, interruption to training from quarantine. Few people could comprehend the resilience and commitment required to persevere and maintain motivation under such adverse conditions, to chip away getting so close to the Olympic qualification zone, but not quite being there yet. Kudos and respect to Nathan and Josh for their commendable and significant efforts to date and the progress made towards their goal. Their results fighting for a medal in the Asian Oceania Continental Championships is testament to their consistent hard work and potential for podium performances. They will now commence their preparations for the final Olympic Games qualification event, the Senior World Championships to be held in Budapest Hungary 6th to 13th June. We wish them well in their preparations and every success in this major international event.
Congratulations to the 6 Senior Budokan athletes for competing in the Central Coast Open competition on 11th April. Results follow:
Unfortunately, due to advice provided by the Dept. Of Health on Friday, to protect the wider Judo community from a potential Chicken Pox spread, our Juniors were not able to compete. This was a decision which disappointed all of us and we thank all our Budokan families who took on this directive promptly and graciously.
