- 25 years ago, this club had 10 members and ran 2 classes a week. 4 years later we held our first Awards Night, so this year represents the 21st time that we have come together to acknowledge the achievements of the club and its members.
- The reason Budokan thrives is because our coaches really care about our athletes, the athletes really care about each other, and the parental support is second to none. For us, success has always been about encouragement, participation, and acknowledgement.
- Acknowledgement of:
Kerrye who will soon be presented with a NSW Government Service Award from the NSW State Member for Castle Hill; and Ali Yuldashev being recently graded to 1st Dan black belt.
- Formal recognition and presentation of certificates to 17 of the club’s long-term volunteers via the NSW Government Volunteer Recognition Program: (5yrs) - Susi Tandean, Peter Jennings, Liam Stewart, Kate Peake, Jo Edwards, Jarrad Cooper, Franz Tandean, Dieter Riechert, Daniel Kennedy, Aziz Yuldashev, Alainya Zollinger, Scott Young (10yrs) - Andras Koltai, Lubo Petr, and Cathy Roach; (Life) – Dale Keogh, Kerrye and Rob Katz. Thanks to Scott for arranging these.
- Highlights for the club this year:
- Club Membership. Stable this year at around 200 with all our classes having a healthy attendance. Acknowledge Kate Peake, who has done a great job in taking over management of our club training fees and Judo NSW membership fees.
- Venue and Finances. We continue to make progress with grant applications and improvements to our club building and training equipment through the hard work of Scott Young. We also provide financial support to our State and National team members. This year we were able to run our first club-hosted NSW Mons and Junior competition in two years and we look forward to continuing this tradition nest year.
- Our International and National Representatives. This year we had a very strong National Team representation, with 8 club members representing Australia in 20 international events. We also had huge participation at the Nationals and at most interstate Open events. Kerrye will run through the details of these shortly.
- Our Coaching Team. Kerrye and I can’t say enough about the support we have received from our main coaches Dale Keogh, Jarrad Cooper and Liam Stewart. We are also very grateful to our assistant and support coaches on the mat: Cathy Roach, Dieter Riechert, Daniel Kennedy, Lynne McCredden, Ben and Lilly Zollinger, Flynn Mogilin, Michael Bielby, Aziz Yuldashev, Lubo Petr, Phoenix Edwards, Simmy Waraich & Mina Woo.
Acknowledge Budokan’s international representatives for 2023:
- Nathan Katz. Nathan fought in 11 international competitions this year including his fifth Senior World Championships. Winning a number of matches, he made the Round of 16 in the Turkey Grand Slam, the R32 in the Georgia GS, and the R32 in the Portugal Grand Prix. He also competed in Grand Slams in France and Israel, and Grand Prix in Austria and Tajikistan and in the Pan-American-Oceania Continental Championships. 4 months ago, Nathan and Josh moved back home from the National Performance Centre in Melbourne and Nathan has recently announced his retirement from competition. He is now recovering from surgery and we wish him well for the future. As he is unable to be here tonight, we will honour his achievements next Tuesday night between the Junior and Senior Sessions.
- Josh Katz. Josh fought in 8 international competitions this year, missing a few due to injury, including the World Championships. He had a solid year winning half of his 20 international matches with career best results fighting for a medal at both the Israel GS, and recently at the Perth Oceania Open as well as winning a Silver medal at the Pan-American-Oceania Continental Championships. He also made the R16 in the Mongolia GS and the Portugal GP, and fought in Grand Slams in France, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Abu Dhabi ending the year with a world ranking of 27 and on track for qualification to the 2024 Olympic Games. We wish him well on his Olympic road ahead.
- Bianca Tandean. Bianca won Gold in the Junior Asian Cup Macau, Silver in the Cadet Asian Cup Macau and the Cadet Pan-American-Oceania Continentals; and Bronzes in the Cadet Asian Cup Hong Kong, the Perth Oceania Cadet Cup, and the Perth Oceania Junior Cup. She also placed 5th in the Junior Asian Cup Hong Kong and competed in the Cadet World Championships, the German Cadet Women’s Cup and the Czech Cadet European Cup
- Max Zollinger. Max won Silver in the Perth Oceania Cadet Cup and Bronze in the Perth Oceania Junior Cup. He placed 5th in the Cadet Asian Cup Hong Kong getting injured fighting for Bronze, so had to miss the Junior event as well as the Cadet and Junior events in Macau. He had 2 good wins at the prestigious Bremen Cadet Masters and also competed in the Czech European Cadet Cup. He was selected for the Cadet Pan-American-Oceania Continentals but unable to compete due to injury.
- Aaron Xu. Aaron won a Bronze in the Perth Oceania Cadet Cup and placed 5th in the Perth Oceania Junior Cup. He also competed in the Cadet and Junior Asian Cups in Hong Kong and Macau.
- Crosby Peake. Crosby placed 5th in the Cadet Asian Cups in Hong Kong and Macau. In Macau he fell ill and couldn’t fight for the Bronze medal. He also competed in the Perth Oceania Cadet Cup.
- Bernhard and Bjorn Tandean - Bernhard and Bjorn qualified for, and competed in the World Kata Championships in Katame-No-Kata.
- National Championships. Presentation to the club of Budokan’s 37 athletes selected to the NSW State Team to the Nationals. Including Kyu Grades, Masters and No Limits divisions, Budokan had 37 athletes compete in 40 divisions winning 20 medals: 6 Gold, 5 Silver and 9 Bronze. We also had 4 athletes contest 3 Kata divisions winning 2 Gold and 1 Silver medal.
- Thanks also to a number of our club coaches who were NSW representatives. Kerrye – Junior Team Coach, Rob – Senior Team Coach, Dale – Kata Team Coach, Liam – Senior Kyu Grades Team Coach, Franz – No Limits Team Coach, Lubo - NSW referee
- Including our officials, we had 45 club members participate in this Nationals, over 22% of the total club membership, which is really great participation for such a large club.
- Volunteers. Our volunteer base is enormous, from our fantastic Coaches and Committee, to parents and athletes who support many of the club’s activities and volunteer at State competitions. Special mention of:
- Dale - NSW BBR Kata instructor, a State Kata Coach & NSW Dan Grades examiner
- Lubo - International referee; and, sitting close behind him are our youngest upcoming referees: Trent, Johnny, Daniil and Ethan.
- Liam - State Kyu Grades Coach, Franz as a State No Limits Coach, State Kata judge.
- Our website sponsor: Guido and Trend Marking, and also Carlo and Pizza Alfresco for his catering sponsorship for our Awards Night.
- Committee members: Scott, Kate, Peter, Andras, Franz, Nick, Kenny and Life Member Dale
- Scott and Kate for their work on major projects this year, and Peter for ensuring our finances and governance remain sound.
- Also Alainya, Susi, Pyit, Kenny, Kate, and Yuan for your support during training sessions with attendance records, cleaning, merchandising and fees.