Thank you to everyone who was involved over the weekend. We raised a huge £315 from selling cakes, judo in your jammies and general donations. Thank you to everyone involved for your hard work and to everyone who bought and baked!!

WELL DONE!!!!

On Saturday 16th March 2013, The Edinburgh Judo Club, for Comic Relief, will again be ‘doing judo in your jammies’.  This fundraising event was extremely successful in 2011 and raised £355.94 for Comic Relief.  It was also lots and lots of fun.

Throughout the whole day, each class was encouraged to come to their judo class in their jammies and to donate £1.00 to Comic Relief.    Alongside ‘judo in your jammies’, we also ran a cake sale.  Parents, members and children were asked to donate their home baking and all proceeds went to Comic Relief.  We would like to do this again.  Cake sales are always very successful and very delicious!!!!

We will give everyone notes and information in the club closer to the time.

The Edinburgh Judo Club

SENIOR
Graham Trinder
Patrick Dawson
Connie Ramsay
Sarah Clark
Jodie Mullen
Sam Ingram
Sally Conway
James Austin
Sarah Adlington

JUNIOR
Jack Smith
Liam Donkin
Valentino Volante

Well done to everyone and keep up the good work. Train hard and smart.

Many of our younger players were competing, last weekend, at the British Championships in Sheffield. The age-banded tournament, is one of a handful of tournaments that will ‘showcase’ players and let Scotland and GB see many of the talents out there. There was great performances and results from the judo club.

Thanks must go to Head Performance Coach Lee Calder who travelled with the players to Sheffield. His coaching, enthusiasm and dedication to all the guys is second to none.

Check out our Facebook page (link below) to see all of the results and to keep up to date with what is happening in judo.

Well done everyone!!!

Tickets are available  from the club NOW. Adults £6, kids £3 (under 3s free).  Buffet, Disco, face painting and (hopefully) Balloon art for the kids

All members and their families are welcome to join us, if you want to book a ticket email us edinburghjudo@aol.com or buy one from Lorraine/Sarah or Alex on the desk.

For the article please follow this link:

http://www.scotsman.com/edinburgh-evening-news/edinburgh/judo-sponsor-sets-up-volante-for-first-foreign-mission-1-2216745

Sunday 18th December 2011 (after the Christmas Fun Day) and will re-open on Saturday 7th January 2012.

We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we will see you in 2012!!!!

At the start of July Richard Cooke competed at the Special Olympics world summer games in Athens as part of the GB team. This was the biggest multi-sports event in the world this year with 7000 competitors from 180 countries competing in 21 sports. It was a bigger event than the Paralympics will be next year. While Paralympics offers competitive sport for athletes with physical disabilities, Special Olympics provides competition for athletes with learning disabilities. Richard was one of 6 judo players who were part of the 150 athletes making up team GB. The week before the games the athletes were hosted on the Island of Skiathos. This let the team acclimatize to the heat which was especially important for those competing in outdoor sports. It also gave team members a chance to get to know each other. The islanders were very welcoming , greeting the team as they came off the ferry, and providing sightseeing trips, a demonstration of Greek dancing, a party and even a play performed by the local High School. The team arrived in Athens the day before the opening ceremony and were taken to their accommodation. The opening ceremony took place in the Panathinaikon Stadium which was the venue of the first modern Olympic games in 1896. The three hour ceremony, including the parade of athletes, was based on Ancient Greek Mythology and Culture, but the highlight was a 30 minute performance by Stevie Wonder. Weigh in and divisioning for judo took place on the Tuesday morning. As well as the usual weight categories, players are entered in one of 3 levels. Light randori lets the officials check that everyone has been entered at the correct level. Richard was entered as level 2 but ended up being placed in a level 1(the highest level) pool for the competition. Richard competed on the Saturday morning. The oath which the Special Olympics athletes take is “Let me win but if I cannot win let me be brave in the attempt” and certainly that attitude was seen during the competition. Richard competed in a pool of five players and so had four fights. He fought hard against strong opponents winning two fights by ippon and losing two fights by ippon, thus gaining the bronze medal and learning about different judo styles. The final result was gold to Kyrgyzstan, silver to Israel, bronze to GB, 4th to Germany and 5th to Kyrgyzstan. Monday saw the closing ceremony which again was held in the Panathinaikon stadium. The Special Olympics flag was lowered and handed over to Korea who will host the Special Olympics world winter games in two years time. The British athletes travelled home the following morning – Richard’s luggage caught up with him on the Wednesday. All that remains is a team reunion at the end of October.

By Fiona Cooke

Following that, both Sarah’s were competing at the next Olympic Qualifier The Miami World Cup. Both players fought extremely well and beat tough opponents en route to their medals. Sarah Clark took GOLD after strangling her Israeli opponent who beat Sarah at the European Championships two months ago, showing that she is regaining some of her previous form, with Sarah Adlington taking a hard fought and well-deserved BRONZE, after beating the Number 1 Russian in her third contest.

Last weekend, a group of female players fought in The Turkish B Tournament. Sally Conway -70kg took GOLD, Connie Ramsay -57kg took BRONZE, with Jodie Mullen -63kg  taking a 5th place.

Well done everyone!!!