Panamerica – Oceania Senior Championships – Rio de Janeiro Brazil, 26th – 27th April 2024
- Excellent work from Josh in what was to be his final Olympic Qualifying event. Not the ideal preparation carrying an injury, Josh was able to win his Round of 16 match against Equator with Waza-Ari off Kata-Guruma. In the Quarter-Final against USA, Josh fought well going into Golden score a Shido up. Unfortunately, at 1 minute in GS his Kata-Guruma was countered for Waza-Ari. In Repechage against El Salvador Josh executed a nice counter to Kata-Guruma for Waza-Ari in Golden Score for the win. The Bronze match with Mexico was difficult. Another Golden score effort 2 Shidos to one down, saw Josh getting caught with Sode-Osoto and having to settle with 5th place. However, under the circumstances this was an amazing result and sufficient for him to maintain his hold of the continental quota position for selection to the Paris Olympic Games. A 180-degree flip on the guidance provided to Josh by the program over the last couple of months to focus on his knee recovery post-Brazil and his Paris preparation, has resulted in him now needing to compete in up to 3 more continental opens (Tahiti, Africa and potentially Peru) to fight to retain the quota position. This now has to be done with no funding given the annual budget has been spent. A bizarre turn of events that seems rather unfair, probably because it is.
Tahiti Oceania Open (1st -2nd June 2024 ) and Abidjan African Open (8th – 9th June 2024)
- Josh will fight in the Tahiti Oceania Open early this Sunday (2/6) morning (our time). https://judotv.com/competitions/cont_open_pyf2024/overview
- The following weekend he will fight in the Abidjan African Open. We wish him all the best to be able to finalise his Olympic campaign with a positive outcome.