Castle Hill’s Budokan Judo Club, which has produced Olympians and Commonwealth Games medallists, honoured their outstanding athletes, coaches, and volunteers at its current twenty first Awards Night.

Having been started by the highly-experienced judokas Rob and Kerrye Katz 25 years in the past with just 10 members and two courses per week, the Budokan Judo Club now has greater than 200 members and runs nine lessons each week.

Budokan Judo Club Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning Glory

“When we took over the membership in 1999, Kerrye and I tapped into all the experiences that we had as athletes coaching at totally different golf equipment all around the world after we were competing,” Rob explained. “Our goal was to build a club with a singular tradition: one which focussed on a grass-roots entity as a community-based family-oriented judo membership while also paving the way for top performance and international competitiveness.

“Our imaginative and prescient has always been to be recognised in the judo and basic communities as the premium judo coaching centre in Australia. Rather than focussing on outcomes, our teaching tradition instills acknowledgement for participation in each facet of the game, in taking on challenges and placing in one of the best efforts in all actions, lessons that assist in all aspects of life.’

Olympians Nathan And Josh Katz Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning GloryRob mentioned that they succeeded in building depth in each age group. Thanks to a strong mentoring ethic by senior athletes, this has resulted in significant performance achievements, he said.

Rob mentioned their largest achievement in competitors is having consistent representation yr after year at the World Championship level 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 also very proud to have gained two bronze medals on the 2022 Commonwealth Games, including to their growing worldwide profile.

“We have one athlete at present on monitor for qualification to Paris 2024 and are additionally happy with our variety,” Rob mentioned. “We had two athletes winning a gold medal and silver medal at the Virtus Asia-Oceania Games, the first time that Budokan has been represented at an international multi-sport competition within the Oceania-Asia region for elite athletes with an mental impairment.

“Budokan Judo Club’s membership ranges from 4 to eighty one years from recreation gamers, to interested mother and father to Olympians and every thing in between.”