Doryoku judokas excel at school championships
They bagged a total of 26 medals
Thirty-five elite judokas from the Doryoku Judo Academy (DJA) participated in the recent South African Schools Judo Tournament, and did extremely well.The tournament took place over two days, with judokas competing in two categories – Novice (judokas who have not competed in national tournaments) and Advanced (experienced judokas who have done national championships previously). The judokas represented their respective schools, and Sensei Danie Bruwer said, “The school principals and staff can really be proud of the DJA judo warriors who fought with gusto and pride.”The judokas bagged a total of 26 medals of which 18 were gold, five silver and three bronze. According to Danie, there were a few judokas who really impressed at the tournament, in both the Novice and Advanced categories.
Janu Malherbe and CJ Schutte competed in the Advanced category, and both walked away with a gold medal. Danie said, “They had all guns blazing, and won in fine style. They qualified for South African colours, which is the highest award a judoka in their age group can qualify for. CJ, who competed in his third SA Schools tournament, had to dig deep for his win, which was very sweet after placing second in last year’s Advanced category and third in the Novice category three years ago. Janu, on the other hand, won with very little effort, for the fifth time in a row.”
In the Novice category, Danie was very impressed with AJ Schutte who won all his fights with Ippon (full score), to revenge his controversial loss at last year’s tournament.
“I was also very impressed with Tiffany Massyn,Anthony Harman, Jayden Groenewald, Dominique Meistre as well as the 11-year-old girls – Zané du Plessis, Minette Brits and Nanje Welman – who started with Advanced training this year,” said Danie.
He concluded by saying, “The year is drawing to a close but our judokas still have a few things to look forward to before they can rest, including the Doryoku Team tournament and clinic as well as the annual District and Club awards functions. We also have CJ Schutte and Ivan Olivier who will be grading for their junior black belts and Rudi Rademeyer and Andrew Hewett who will be grading for senior black belts.”
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