Castle Hill’s Budokan Judo Club, which has produced Olympians and Commonwealth Games medallists, honoured their outstanding athletes, coaches, and volunteers at its current 21st Awards Night.
Having been started by the highly-experienced judokas Rob and Kerrye Katz 25 years ago with just 10 members and two courses per week, the Budokan Judo Club now has greater than 200 members and runs nine courses each week.
Budokan Judo Club Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning Glory
“When we took over the club in 1999, Kerrye and I tapped into all the experiences that we had as athletes coaching at totally different clubs all around the globe when we have been competing,” Rob defined. “Our aim was to build a club with a singular culture: one which focussed on a grass-roots entity as a community-based family-oriented judo club while also paving the way for top efficiency and worldwide competitiveness.
“Our imaginative and prescient has at all times been to be recognised in the judo and common communities because the premium judo coaching centre in Australia. Rather than focussing on outcomes, our teaching tradition instills acknowledgement for participation in every side of the sport, in taking over challenges and putting in the best efforts in all actions, lessons that help in all elements of life.’
Olympians Nathan And Josh Katz Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning GloryRob stated that they succeeded in constructing depth in every age group. Thanks to a robust mentoring ethic by senior athletes, this has resulted in important performance achievements, he said.
Rob stated their largest achievement in competition is having consistent illustration yr after yr on the World Championship degree throughout all three senior age groups: under-17, under-21, and senior.
“The pinnacle of accomplishment has been having two Olympic representatives in Athens, followed by our first two home-grown Olympic representatives in Rio 2016 and then again in Tokyo 2020,” Rob said. The club had been additionally very proud to have won two bronze medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, including to their rising international profile.
“We have one athlete currently on track for qualification to Paris 2024 and are also proud of our range,” Rob stated. “We had two athletes winning a gold medal and silver medal on the Virtus Asia-Oceania Games, the primary time that Budokan has been represented at a global multi-sport competitors in the Oceania-Asia region for elite athletes with an intellectual impairment.
“Budokan Judo Club’s membership ranges from four to 81 years from recreation players, to involved parents to Olympians and every thing in between.”