Hi to all Budokanis, old and new. Welcome to a number of new club members – we hope that you enjoy your Judo experience at Budokan. Please let me (or any of our great Committee members or coaches) know if there is anything we can do for you.
- We have had a great start to the year with class numbers reaching an all-time high. Our membership currently fluctuates between 205 and 207. Class sizes are very healthy with regular numbers for our Mons class at 20, for our Junior classes at 50 and our Senior graded classes 20ish, which is amazing. Dinos also sits at 8-10 and Monday’s beginner/Kyu Grade Seniors at 10-12.
- A number of our athletes participated in the National Training Camp at the National Performance Centre (NPC) in Melbourne as well as the post-ACT International Open Camp. Our results at the ACTIO this year were really great and auger well for a solid competition year ahead. Details are in this newsletter. Unfortunately, Josh was injured on the last day of the Melbourne Camp and had to miss his first block of international events (Portugal GP and France GS) and will also miss the next block (Austria GP and Georgia GS). We wish him well in his recovery and his return to IJF Olympic Qualifying events, the next being Pan America-Oceania in Brazil end of April.
- We have the important Sydney International Open next weekend after which National selections will proceed for upcoming international events for our Cadets and Juniors. We also have our Budokan Mons and Junior (U/11) competition coming up on the 17th March, so please reach out and get involved in this important club event.
Please let me know if you have any news that you want to share in future newsletters and I can do my best to accommodate you. Enjoy this Newsletter and “See you on the mat”. Rob K