The Sydney University Judo Club (SUJC) has dominated the NSW Club Teams Championships, winning gold in both the men’s and women’s divisions at Olympic Park, Homebush Bay.
Fielding two teams in the men’s open division and three teams in the women’s Kyu grade divisions, Sydney Uni’s men finished first and took out all three places on the podium in the women’s division.
Sydney Uni’s men’s A team were victorious thanks to their superior tactical fighting. Not to be outdone, the men’s B team, which included a number of debut fighters, finished the tournament with their fair share of individual wins. Of particular note were the performances of Sean Clifford and George Khokhlov.
The women’s teams completely dominated their division, and at the end of the competition the SUJC girls finished with gold, silver and bronze medals.
In other judo news, Sydney Uni athletes also achieved some fantastic results at the 2013 Winter Senior KYU Grades Tournament and the 2013 National Judo Titles.
Also held at Homebush Bay, SUJC athletes won six gold, two silver and four bronze medals at the 2013 Winter Senior KYU Grades Tournament earlier this month.
In the women’s bouts (third and fourth Kyu divisions), Angela May O’Connor (u63kg) and Cindy Ariyamethe (u78kg) were undefeated in their respective divisions to finish in first place. Fighting in her debut competition, Marlena Lutz-Hughesunder (u63kg) finished third.
In the men’s (third and fourth Kyu divisions), Gary Fong (u100kg) was as deadly on the ground as he was standing as he blitzed through his fights to finish first and in his debut competition George Hohlov rounded out the division taking second. Patrick Lewis (u90kg) took out gold, while, Jarrod Tunks finished second and Eric Patterson third (u73kg). Harrison Nguyen (U60kg) maintained his competition form to finish first. In the (first and second Kyu divisions) Kurt Lewis (u100kg) took bronze and club captain Andrew Roberts (u81Kg) finished the day taking first place despite not be able to utilise his deadly uchi-mata due to ankle injury.
In June, SUJC athletes claimed three gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the 2013 National Judo Titles in Wollongong.
The NSW masters team consisted of Vic Ross, Ken McAviney, Dave Givney, Anthony Luey, Kristof Frankowski, Eddie Wong and Martin Doyle. Whilst there were others representing NSW, the above Judoka attended the training program set at the SUJC dojo on the preceding six Saturdays prior to the competition.
The SUJC group fared well with Ken McAviney winning gold, Dave Givney winning silver and Vic Ross finishing third in the same division. Martin Doyle won gold in his category against strong competition, securing ippons on both opponents. Kristof Frankowski had one opponent and threw him with a conventional tomoe-nage for ippon.
SUJC possessed the oldest competitor in Vic Ross (72) and arguably the best throw with Martin Doyle’s uchi-mata on John Barrett of Queensland.
Also representing NSW from Sydney University was Andrew Roberts, in the Kyu grades division championships, who took bronze.