The club’s National-level athletes trained through the holidays both on and off the mat in preparation for two National camps. Both of these camps were very successful for our athletes and coaches. Budokan’s representatives to these camps were:
- 9 – 12 January – National Australia Nextgen Camp 2025 at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Canberra for athletes turning 14 or 15 years in 2025: Daniil Savytskyi and Ethan Zhang
- 13 – 18 January – National Senior Camp at the National Performance Centre (NPC) Melbourne for Cadet and older athletes: Nicholas Platonov, Aaron Xu, Crosby Peake, Max Zollinger, Nikola Dobric, Clarissa Vumbaca, Bianca Tandean. Eric Jang was also selected but was unable to attend. Kento Asano from Ohori Brisbane also participated and has now joined us at Budokan having moved to Sydney. Welcome Kento to the Budokan family. Also participating were Josh Katz (off mat) and National Coaches Kerrye and Nathan Katz and club coach Rob Katz. This camp ran for 6 days with 2 Judo sessions being run on most days, a team conditioning session, an IJF Rules Seminar and a practical session on Rules interpretation plus a talk and Q&A on Sport Integrity. The 100 athletes and coaches were well and truly fully occupied. Living in cabins 5-6 in a room was also great for team bonding.
Also during the holiday break, 4 of our athletes had the opportunity to train in Korea. Congratulations to Alex and Alice Lee, Grant Gu and Isaac Choi.