Cadet and Junior Asian Cups – Hong Kong and Macau (19 – 27 July)7 Budokan athletes left for Hong Kong on 17th July where they met up with the 4 Budokan Juniors who had fought in Europe.
- Nicholas Platonov, Crosby Peake, Lochlan Cook, Kento Asano, Nicholas Platonov, Billy Nyamdorj, and Anita Nourafshan competed in the Asian Cadet Cup in Hong Kong. Max Zollinger, Eric Jang and Bianca Tandean were to compete in the Hong Kong Junior Asian Cup together with Crosby, Lochlan, Kento, Billy, and Anita; however, due to dangerous typhoon weather conditions, the Junior event was cancelled. The athletes were able to participate in the camp before heading to Macau. Due to cancellation of the Hong Kong Junior event, Bianca extended her trip to compete in Macau. Max had always planned to return home after Hong Kong Juniors and was disappointed that this event was cancelled. Report on the Hong Kong Cadet Asian Cup follows:
Hong Kong Cadet Asian Cup I have included a brief description for each athlete contesting the Hong Kong Cadets so that you get a bit of an idea of how they fought. The Macau Cadet and Junior reports are just result-based.
- Nicholas Platonov – Good win against MAC (who had beaten HKG) with Uchi-Mata off the floor. In the Semi-Final against KSA, Nic was a little wild and 1 minute in Golden score was thrown with Seoi-Nage. He did well to come back and win the Bronze against another Australian - quite controversial in a match which Nic dominated, his score from Ouchi was incorrectly given to his opponent, and the match also awarded incorrectly. However, this was corrected before the medal ceremony.
- Crosby Peake – A good win in his first match against KSA with and arm-lock put Croz against MGL in the Quarter-Final. A tight match although Croz was unlucky not to score in normal time, he secured the win in Golden Score scoring Yuko with Osoto-Gari putting him in the Semi-Final. In this match, things were pretty even when Croz was thrown with a skilful Sode by MGL at the halfway point. In the Bronze match, he also came back well from a score down to level the match then throw his MGL opponent for Ippon with Uchi-Mata to take the medal.
- Lochlon Cook - Had some difficulty getting a grip advantage against his MGL opponent and was caught with a Seoi-Nage attack for Waza-Ari. He was unable to level the match and this is how it ended.
- Kento Asano – A strong first match against INA who had beaten HKG. Good use of Tai-Otoshi for Waza-Ari put him in the semi-final against MGL. This was a solid match with Kento throwing his opponent off the floor with Sumi-Gaeshi for Ippon. He also played well in the Final against TPE to score with Uchi-Mata and then end the match with another Ippon throwing TPE off the floor to take the Gold medal. This is Kento’s first international (overseas) medal and first international Gold showing a promising future.
- Billy Nyamdorj – His first fight against MGL could have gone either way, quite a war going over 5 minutes in Golden Score. A well-timed Sode for Billy scored Ippon and ended the match. In the Semi-final, a good win to Billy just before full time with a Waza-Ari scored from Sumi-Gaeshi after a poor drop attack from TPE. This put Billy in the final against his Australian opponent. It was hard fought with Billy taking the initiative but at the half-way point was caught with a switch Gake for Yuko which he was unable to get back, so he had to be satisfied with a Silver medal.
- Anita Nourafshan – Unfortunately there were only 2 athletes in Anita’s division so there was only a single final match. Her TPE opponent was very aggressive with her top grip and with a significant size difference between them, made it very difficult for Anita to deal with. Anita could not stop a very strong Harai-Goshi attack and was thrown for Ippon.
Overall, a solid performance from our 6 Cadets in Hong Kong with 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals and more importantly many important observations and lessons learned from both wins and losses. Macau Cadet Asian Cup
- Anita - Silver medal
- Billy – Bronze medal
- Nicholas fought for Bronze and would have been disappointed with 5th place.
Big efforts from Crosby, Lochlan and Kento but no medal this time, Kento also injuring his elbow in the process and withdrawing from the Junior event. Macau Junior Asian CupCrosby, Lochlan, Billy and Anita played up an age category and Budokan Juniors Bianca and Eric also competed. Outcome was:
- Bianca – Bronze medal
- Anita - Bronze medal
- Crosby - 7th place
Together with Hong Kong Cadets and Macau Cadet and Junior divisions, we had:
- 8 athletes competing in 18 divisions over 3 competitions winning 8 medals:
- 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 5 Bronze plus 1 x 5th and 1 x 7th place.
A great experience for everyone – well done! The athletes have now returned home and have already started training again.
- Cadet World Championships – Sofia, Bulgaria 27 – 31 August
- I mentioned in the last Newsletter that Crosby Peake will be representing Australia at the Cadet World Championships in Bulgaria in under a month’s time and we wish him well in his preparations and lead up to this important competition.