Sydney Uni Judo Club members competed in the Sydney International Open in late February. It is an international level competition, and a medal placement gives the player an international ranking. There different parts of the competition were as follows:
In the Shiai (fighting competition):
There were some fantastic results in the Shiai. Ririko Noda won Gold in Senior Women U52 kg. Andrew Roberts won 3 of 4 fights in Senior Men U81 kg and came tied 7th of 21. George Khokhlov in Senior Men U100 kg won 2 of 4 fights and came tied 5th of 12
Ririko Noda won in her division very quickly. Her Australian Coach Randall Jones said that they were “Very stylish wins, but not easy; [it takes] years of hard training to get where she is.”
Yuki Uemura: “To get a gold medal was too easy for her” Ririko won her her first match with ko-uchi-gari and drop seoi-nage in 1 minute. Her second fight lasted just as long. And in just over two minutes Ririko had a gold medal.
Club members Quanmei (Karen) Zheng and Rachel Mak volunteered on the scoring tables all day.
Kata competition:
Kata is a formal pattern sequence performed with a partner. Scoring is based on the skill in performing each technique, formal behaviour and attire, and correct response to the partner’s movement. Olexandr Sheychenko and Yekaterina Yurkova have been practising their kata together for over two years. At the 2018 National Championships they received Bronze (a score of >70% accuracy). At Sydney International last weekend they achieved Silver, a score of over 80%.
