Online it can seem like only a narrow thread of competitive judo is surviving, with most countries still restricting competitive, full-contact sport. Australia, however, having been strict and protective since the pandemic hit in the spring of last year, is seeing a re-emergence and while The Worlds was in full swing, so was their National Championships, being run for the first time in two years.
Kate Corkery, President of Judo Australia, was excited to be able to speak about the event, “Judo in Australia came back to life at the Nationals on the Gold Coast last weekend. There were familiar and wonderful sounds of the crowd cheering and ippon being scored, as friends who had been absent for two years were able to embrace as if time hadn’t passed.”
In a now all too familiar caviat, as no situation comes without reference to Covid in this era, judoka from the state of Victoria were not present, caught in a lockdown and unable to travel.
“Through the cheers, the tears, the wins and the losses we recognised time had passed and we missed our colleagues from Victoria, so although it was familiar it was not the same. There was hope though that this was the beginning of reconnecting through our love for judo,” said the Judo Australia President.
Emma Taylor, CEO of Judo Australia was practical and clear when assisting with event operations, “The opportunity to get back on the mat at the 2021 judo Nationals was exciting for our community. We were devastated our Victorian family could not attend, due to Covid-led border restrictions and hope we can all come together soon.
It has been 2 years since our last national event and changes made over the past 18 months, due to Covid, were evident. In 2019 our event had close to 1,000 entries. In 2021 we had nearly 800 entries originally, which dropped to 650 when our Victorian members couldn’t attend.”
With an entry at two thirds of the normal capacity, it seems that although the pandemic has presented a cost, it is also passing and to run the event at all was brave, progressive and necessary, following the example of the IJF, who have been back on the World Judo Tour since October 2020. Like the IJF events the Australian restart has not been considered lightly and changes to protocol had to be made to ensure the safety of all attendees.
Emma Taylor continued, “Communication and awareness about Covid symptoms was key in the early stages of organisation. Once on site we encouraged social distancing and enforced regular cleaning of the mats. The event management team completed safety plans. Australia has been fortunate in our overall management of Covid and with everything in place it was great to have our judo community back on the mat competing.”
Judo Australia also took the decision to remove ranking points from the event and make it all about the prestige and fun of the event itself, ensuring fair access to national squad systems for the state of Victoria and ensuring that the spirit of the event was enveloped only in judo and judo values.
Anna Rasmussen, the Queensland Head Coach said, “Queensland is known as the Sunshine State, however Covid-19 cast a dark cloud over our sport and hit us hard. We lost many judo members, at least temporarily, while we all managed the health crisis as a priority. Many of our elite athletes have been unable to travel internationally to get their judo stronger.
Queensland’s judo community is grateful for what we can achieve now and we never dwell on the past. We are moving forward to promote our dynamic, explosive sport, following our moral code and integrating this discipline for life.”
Angus Baird of the UWA Judo club in Western Australia said, “I saw the opportunity to compete with the nation’s best. You can’t test your judo and measure it’s relative quality without a variety of partners and opponents and if that’s something that is important to you you’ll take every opportunity to do so, so we came.”
It seems unanimous that this step is welcome at an administrative level as well as for coaches and athletes. Rourke Thiedeman aged 12, a competitor in both the individual and mixed team events, said, “Team events are my favourite, they’re so exciting and we all coach each other and cheer for our friends and everyone from our state was really loud. We lost but it didn’t matter, it was still my favourite part of the tournament.”
Rourke participated in the mixed teams competition, which was the first of its kind at national level. Having now competed in that format he is looking forward to watching the Olympic mixed team competition in Tokyo in just a few weeks time.
Celeste Knoester, Western Australia’s Head Coach and one of Rourke’s coaches said, “Normally we’d have more than 110 athletes but this year we had 45 from the state. Normally our club would win that many medals! Altogether we lost about 20% of our country’s athletes with Victoria shutting down and they’re usually a force to be reckoned with.
It’s a shame that we couldn’t have everyone in attendance but at the end of the day we have to take the competition where we can get it.
I’m proud of my athletes for all the effort they have put in. It’s easy to see the ones who have fallen in love with the sport, they’re the ones who have shown up day in and day out without question of the world’s circumstances."
A successful event could make way for further events in the near future. A lot was accomplished last weekend on the Gold Coast!