In April’s Newsletter I gave a detailed rundown of the club’s performance at the Oceania Continental Union Championships. Budokan had 6 National Team representatives who did extremely well winning 3 Gold and 1 Bronze medal plus a Kata Gold medal. The 2 Senior Golds helped put Nathan and Josh in the Olympic Games qualification (OQ) zone. The boys left for Europe 4 weeks ago and have since competed in the Baku (Azerbaijan) Grand Slam. Although Josh was disappointed with his first Grand Slam match against former World Cup Gold medalist 33yo Guedez from Venezuela by 2 Shidos, the experience of this event was extremely valuable; every match, win or lose, learning and progress. Despite the Baku loss, Josh’s first World Cup medal in Tunisia earlier this year at just 18yo is a good indication of his future potential. In Baku, Nathan had a first Round bye and In Round 2 he defeated the 2016 Asian Continental Union Silver medalist from Iran by Ippon. In Round 3 (Round of 16), he lost a close-fought match by 3 shidos to 2 to Van Gansbeke of Belgium, the 26yo former World Cup Gold medalist who has previously placed top 5 Grand Prix / top 7 Grand Slam / Europeans. These are all quality opponents in Grand Slam events. Nathan’s 9th in this event complements the 7th he won at the Tokyo Grand Slam late last year and augers well for his potential in the next 6-12 months at the highest level. Unfortunately the streaming camera failed during Josh’s match, however video of Nathan’s matches can be found at https://www.judobase.org/#/competition/profile/1330/contests/2 The boys have just completed their first week of a 3 week training block at Tsukuba Univerity in Tokyo where their schedule is incredibly tough. Olympic Qualification list can be found at Judobase website at: https://www.judobase.org/#/wrl/1/ogq (Josh) and https://www.judobase.org/#/wrl/2/ogq (Nathan). The qualification period ends on 30th May immediately following the World Masters in Mexico, but the boys’ positions in the Rio team is (unofficially) now quite secure. Great work boys. We’re very proud parents and coaches and the club is right behind you all the way. We wish them well for the remainder of this training block as part of their Olympic preparation. See also: http://rio2016.olympics.com.au/news/crunch-time-for-aussie-judokas and
http://rio2016.olympics.com.au/news/rio-hopefuls-fight-it-out-in-baku
Congratulations for also securing their OGs positions to Jake Bensted, Eoin Coughlan, Katharina Haecker and Miranda Giambelli as well as frequent Budokan visitor from QLD Chloe Rayner who should now secure the Continental Quota position. Congratulations also to the boys’ Camberley team-mate Ashley McKenzie who has secured his second OGs selection. With the Almaty Grand Prix now also completed, and only the World Masters to go, commiserations go to Seb Temesi, Diego Barreto, Duke Didier, and Nicolas Berard who will miss the OGs qualifying zone for their divisions. This is a difficult pill for these athletes to swallow after a long road trying to qualify and we feel for them as we do our friends from Camberley who will now also miss OGs selection after coming so close: Nathon Burns, Danny Williams, Owen Livesey and Frazer Chamberlain.