SHINING SUCCESS: Simon Ogden and cadet judoka George Robinson won gold medals at the Wellington Judo Open Competition held at Kapiti College over Anzac weekend. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
SHINING SUCCESS: Simon Ogden and cadet judoka George Robinson won gold medals at the Wellington Judo Open Competition held at Kapiti College over Anzac weekend. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
Fighters from the Masterton Judo & Ju Jitsu Academy returned with a haul of medals from the Wellington Judo Open Competition over Anzac weekend.
Academy founder Simon Ogden said a corps of junior, cadet and adult judoka had competed in kata - demonstration patterns of judo techniques - and freefighting known as shiai at the two-day tournament held at Kapiti College.
Members of the Masterton academy won three gold and three silver medals at the competition, which had attracted fighters from throughout the greater Wellington region and from as far away as Christchurch and Napier.
Gold medal winners from Wairarapa included Maia Mckenzie in the senior girls category - competing two grades above her under-42kg fight weight - cadet male under-64kg fighter George Robinson - fighting a grade up from his weight - and Ogden in the Masters 90kg and over class.
"George's fight was really frustrating. He threw his larger opponent twice for a half point, but, in the melee, ended up underneath and getting pinned. But it's just the way it goes."
Ogden also took silver alongside his Nage-no-kata partner, Vinnie Morris, and Sam Clegg got silver in the senior boys under-45kg division. Academy fighter Cartier Mackenzie was fourth in Nage-no-kata and her brother Jayden battled some high order opponents, failing to place despite close competition in the hard-fought division.
Senior men Sean Stafford and Stuart Harvey also missed out on placing in Nage-no-kata, and shiai.
"Competition is a learning experience for everybody, and all our guys got a good experience and nobody was injured, which I like to think is because they all have good ukemi (break-fall)," Ogden said.
"Learning to apply techniques in competition is learning in a dynamic environment, a more difficult environment.
"At competitions, you either win or you learn and I think our successes at Wellington have inspired some of our people to compete at the North Wellington contest in a couple of weeks, and that has to be a good thing," he said.
"We have two in senior mens and four competitors in Masters and that reflects the revival in masters competition in New Zealand."
Ogden said a team of 10 academy fighters - juniors, cadets, seniors and masters - would compete at the 2015 North Wellington Open Judo Championships to be held at the International Pacific College Gymnasium on May 9-10.
