Cobar Judo Club held its end of year activities over the weekend welcoming back a long time friend of the Dojo, Shihan Denis Byrnes Roku-dan (6th degree Black Belt), who travelled from Sydney.
The weekend consisted of an extra training session on the Friday night, and a whole class session on the Saturday morning.
Saturday afternoon was spent with the more senior and experienced members working on specific areas of Judo, such as kata (prescribed techniques in a particular order), as well as other more obscure techniques.
“I love coming to Cobar and training with the Cobar Dojo,” Shihan Byrnes said.
“In all honesty, I would rather spend eight hours driving to Cobar then drive 20 minutes down the road and train with any of the city clubs.
“The Cobar Judo Club is always of a high standard and, in my opinion, are head and shoulders above a lot of what I’ve seen in some city clubs, especially when you consider the city clubs get a lot of advantages, like visiting high ranking instructors, that Cobar doesn’t get,” he said.
“The Cobar students have a thirst for what they are learning and they take it on board and run with it.
“They are a credit to their instructors and to the town as a whole,” he said.
During Saturday’s grading session, the following grades were awarded: Junior Yellow Belt – Louis Mitchell and Juan Engelbrecht; Senior Orange Belt – Ryan Chillingworth.
There was also the opportunity to promote senior members of the dojo with Sensei Robbie Cummins promoted to Go-Dan (5th degree Black Belt) and Sensei Jack Sinclair promoted to San-Dan (3rd degree Black Belt).
A shiai (competition) was held on Sunday and all divisions were hotly contested
In addition to awarding 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, awards for the Best Bout and Best Ippon (Full Point) were also on offer.
In the Mons Under 10 years division, all competitors were eager to assert themselves to their opponents, but eagerness alone would not be enough. In the end, the following places were earned – 1st—Juan Engelbrecht, 2nd— Bruce Banner-Sinclair and 3rd—Sun Wu-Kong.
There were some hard fought bouts in the Yonens (U13yrs) with the following places: 1st—Tim McClure, 2nd—Joseph Theakston and 3rd—Indie Mundy-Ryan.
The action stepped up a notch with the Shonen (U16yrs). After some fiery exchanges in techniques, the following placings were awarded: 1st—Kian Engelbrecht, 2nd—Louis Mitchell and 3rd—Jaina Chandler.
The Sienen (16yrs+ Open) division was the highlight of the day with some very fast techniques (and bouts) on display.
After the dust had settled, first place went to Jack Sinclair with Paul Theakston second and Caleb Theakston was third.
The Best Bout was awarded to Tim McClure and Indie Mundy-Ryan, with the Best Ippon awarded to Ronin Chandler.
The Sue Duell Memorial Trophy was awarded to Ryan Chillingworth. This concluded the year of Judo for 2024. Training will return early in 2025.—contributed
