Press release: 17 June. 2004

To: Sport desk Author:  Pete Acciari

1 Gold + 3 Silver NATIONAL Judo Medals for Tuggerah's KIDO-MINGARA JUDO ACADEMY

The top Australian Judo exponents from every State converged on the Sleeman Sports Centre Brisbane for the honour of wearing the Title of the best ‘Judoka' in the Junior and Senior divisions. Six (6) players from the Academy wore the NSW blues to represent the State with distinction again proving that its players are well on track in developing new talent by its consistency of placing athletes in the Medal rounds.

MARTIN KELLY , who had already qualified for the Athens Olympics entered to gauge his recovery from an injury sustained in Korea. He made his wins look very easy by giving his opponents very little mat time disposing of them in less than 30 seconds. At this point Martin determined that with his injury only about 90% healed he would decide to withdraw from the finals and settle for Silver, to be on the safe side. His first priority is the top and best preparation for Athens.    Martin's final preparation starts now when he flies to Korea and Germany for 5 weeks, returns for two days at home . spends two days back at home then is on his final

For all players except Martin, this was a huge learning curve as it was their very first Nationals. The results were s pearheaded by COURTNEY WYE' S two medals; Gold in the u/16 u/44kg and Silver in the u/13 u/45kg age group. Courtney lost  her 1st bout to the Northern Territorian in the first few seconds with nerves and tenseness playing a big part in the upset loss by a well-timed foot sweep-counter. But then Courtney fired up winning against the remaining opponents all from Queensland, with left-handed throws by full point ‘Ippon'.

HANNAH TROTTER U/13 u/50kg was only very light in her weight division but nevertheless played really well with good attempts at a variety of techniques.  Her drop Seoinage (shoulder throw) was her main stay in all her bouts starting with the elimination of her NSW team-mate. She went on to beat two Queenslanders one by full point harai, the other with a minor score. In the finals Hannah was unable to get within the reach of the tallest and heaviest opponent, having to settle for Silver with all her attacks just a hairsbreadth short of coming off.  

Harul LONGWOOD u/19 u/66kg, had 4 bouts in which he found out he can handle the best in his standing skills but needs to refine his defences against submission techniques. The experience has now fired him up for next year for which he has higher expectations.

Kai TROTTER U/16 u/66kg, Even though throwing his opponent in the first bout he couldn't capitalise on the ground thus losing this bout. Unfortunately this opponent  was defeated in the next round, which did not pull Kai into the repechage and a chance for further bouts. He is now doubly determined to attend next year's event and show his improvement.

C asey TROTTER tried hard and one of the youngest at the competition at 10yrs, plus at the bottom of the division's weight requirement gave away too many variables.  Nevertheless he acquitted himself well by only narrowly losing the first bout. In the repechage Casey nailed his first bout with an amazingly fast left/right attack sequence for Ippon throw.   He lost his final bout to settle for 7 th place. …………….. The Nationals was a positive experience for all and served them well by gaining the experience to seriously needed at that level.

The Kido Academy is taking registrations for next year's uptake over the next 6 weeks. If interested Ph 4362 1743 or visit our web site www.kidomingarajudo.com.au for details.