Matthew Rooney became the first Irish male to win an EJU ‘A’ Tournament when he claimed the Gold medal in Spain last weekend. The National Cadet Team of Matthew, Gemma Reynolds and Louise Brown flew out to Malaga for the first of their two EJU ‘A’ Tournaments with IJA National Cadet Coaches, Alan and Sue Jones. Both Louise (-48kg St.Peters) and Gemma (-57kg Yamakwai) performed very well, each winning one of their contests. Their focus will now turn to the 4-day EJU training camp and preparations for the next Cadet ‘A’ tournament in the Czech Republic.

Matthew (Yamakwai) was one of 22 Judoka from 9 countries competing in the –50kg category. After receiving a Bye in the first round Matthew went on to win his next four contests including Ippon wins in the Semi Final and Final. His Gold medal performance has secured his qualification for the Cadet European Championships to be held in Lithuania in July.

Matthew also celebrated his sixteenth birthday on the day of competition and will be delighted to back to his fighting best after recovering from breaking both his arms in 2007.

National squad members from Yamakwai enjoyed a full day of technique training with one of the most celebrated Judo players in the world on Saturday. Vitaly Makarov (former World Champion, Olympic and European Silver medallist) gave a memorable insight to his most successful techniques. This was also the first mixed session combining the IJA & NIJF National Squads with over 80 Judoka in attendance. Gemma Reynolds and Matthew Rooney used the training day as part of their final preparations for the EJU Cadet ‘A’ Tournament in Spain in two weeks. Lisa Kearney (seen below throwing Cabaj of Poland in the World Championships) will compete one week later in the Junior World Cup in Portugal.

Seven Yamakwai members brought home 3 Gold medals, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze from Cardiff last weekend. This represents the clubs best set of results in this event. Four of the club members were representing the National Team in the Junior (-20) and Cadet (-17) age bands and the three remaining members competed in the -15 & -13years age bands.

Bobbie Cardwell produced her best performance to date winning Gold in the -36kg category while big sister Lisa won the Silver in -52kg. Eoin Fleming lost in the semi final of the -46kg event but responded well to win the Bronze medal. Matthew Rooney did well to overcome a year of injury and win the Silver in the Cadet -50kg, while Gemma Reynolds and Lisa Kearney won gold in Cadet -57kg and Junior -52 kg respectively.

Gemma and Lisa will now represent Ireland in the EJU European circuit for 2008.

Click to see the rest of the photo from the Welsh and Irish Open

Six Yamakwai members will compete in the Welsh Open in Cardiff on January 12th. Lisa Cardwell and Eoin Fleming will be hoping to add to some recent fine results in domestic competition with a strong performance in the first international event of the New Year.

The remaining four Yamakwai participants will be members of the National Team selected for the Cadet and Junior events. Matthew Rooney and Gemma Reynolds are regular medal winners in this event and are hoping to improve on last years Bronze medals. Caoimhin Thompson and Lisa Kearney are previous winners of the Cadet Welsh Open but will competing in the Junior Event this time round.

Preparations for the 2008 competition calendar begin on Saturday 29th December in the Glens of Antrim. The Yamakwai Winter Training Camp takes place in Glenariff again this year and is followed by an international training camp in the Lake District, England. The Kendal training camp will include many World and European Medal winners among its participants. Seven hours of training each day is broken down into four training sessions, the first of which is an hours groundwork at 7am before breakfast. Yamakwai’s Winter Training programme will conclude at Irish National Squad Training on Saturday 5th January in the National Judo centre, Finglas, Dublin. Normal Yamakwai class timetable resumes on Monday 7th January.

Happy Christmas and a successful 2008 to all our members

So a big congratulations to Caoimhe, Shannon, Cormac, Cian, Caolan, Conor, Martin, Conchur, Conal, Brendan, Niall, Fionn, Jamie, Steven, Lorcan, martin, Declan, Jordan, Cormac, Odhran, Conor, Tomas and Conall all pictured with their certificates. Hopefully we can all continue having as much fun and working as hard for our 2nd star award!

Yamakwai topped the medal table at last weekends Irish Open with an impressive 9 Gold medals, 2 silver and 2 bronze. Despite sending a much smaller number of competitors to Ireland’s flagship event, the Yamakwai members displayed some marvellous performances to come out on top. Laoise Ferris and Gary Reynolds got the club off to the perfect start with Gold medals in the two lightest categories. Joe Kennedy added a Bronze medal in the –41kg category and older sister Molly won the +48kg Gold. Catherine Donnelly completed our medal tally in the –13years division with a Bronze medal.
Current international players, Matthew Rooney, Gemma Reynolds and Caoimhin Thompson comfortably won their Cadet (-17) Irish Open titles. Caoimhin went on to win the Cadet Open, silver in the Junior (-20) Men and bronze in the Senior Men’s divisions-a remarkable achievement for the 16 year old. Gemma and Matthew also won the Junior titles and last years winner Eoin Fleming had to be happy with the silver medal this time round.

Click to download Irish Judo Association National Squad Programme for 2007/8 in pdf format.

Two EJU Junior World Cup medals in two weeks is a good return by any standard. Despite a much smaller entry than the event in Vienna the previous week Lisa still had to fight three of the topped ranked Judoka in Europe. Tekneci from Turkey has won 2 Silver medals at 2007 EJU JWC and came up against Lisa in the first round. The contest was closer than the Wazari and shido scoreline would suggest. A similar close fight ensued in the semi final against former Youth Olympic Champion, Levy of Israel. No score going into the last minute when Lisa was thrown for Ippon. Lisa came back well to beat Romania for the Bronze medal. Click to view pool sheet

Caoimhin Thompson moved up to a new weight category in Coventry last week when participating in the UK School Games. He was the clubs’ only representative at the event and did not dissapoint returning with a credible Bronze Medal performance.

Ten months of Treatment, Surgery and Rehabilitation were only a distant memory for Lisa Kearney when she collected her Bronze medal at the EJU Junior World Cup in Austria last week. Despite training closely with her SINI Strength & Conditioning Coach throughout her injury, Lisa only stepped back on the mat for Randori two weeks before the event. In the end her lack of strong gripping practice let her down in the semi final against Bonna (FRA) where she lost by a yuko. Bonna went on to win Gold. Lisa won the bronze medal comfortably in Ne Waza against her German opponent. Click to view pool sheet

Caoimhin Thompson won the Bronze medal in The Cadet International in Venray, Holland today (3rd June). Caoimhin had 6 fights, losing in the semi final by Yuko, before ultimately winning the bronze medal against the German by Ippon. 59 competitors from 16 countries contested the -66kg division. 1700 competitors from 28 countries took part in the Venray international this year and Caoimihin's Medal ensures his qualification for the European Championships in Malta next month. Visit http://wwww.judovenray.nl/ for full results and pool sheets.

On Sunday 1 April 11 representatives of Yamakwai Judo Club traveled to the National Training Centre in Finglas, Dublin to participate in the Leinster Open. Click here to read write up.

EJU Cadet A Tournament, Czech Republic

Commonwealth Champion Lisa Kearney has recently been included in the KSV Esslingen squad for the 2007 Bundesliga campaign. Lisa is currently in the middle of an intense rehabilitation programme following surgery on her thumb and will miss this weekends opening Bundesliga match.
KSV Esslingen’s male and female teams finished 3rd and 5th respectively in the league last year and have secured the services of World Champions Craig Fallon and Alexander Mikhailine for this years campaign. Sarah Clarke (European Champion) and Sally Conway (Junior World Silver Medallist) have been added to strengthen the Ladies team. www.ksv-esslingen.de

The Yamakwai winter training programme will conclude this weekend at the BJA International Training Camp in Sheffield. Congratulations to all our members who braved the conditions in the Glens of Antrim throughout the Christmas period. The commitment shown by all who took part was fantastic. The Yamakwai players endured four days of Mountain runs, Beech training and Gym work before jetting off to the world class facilities at the English Institute of Sport where they will look forward to 15 hours of top class Judo over four days.

Congratulations to Gemma Reynolds, Matthew Rooney, Caoimhin Thompson and John Kennedy on their selection to represent Ireland at the forthcoming –20 Welsh Open in Cardiff 20/01/07. Paul Irwin will also represent Yamakwai at these championships where he will hope to add to his Silver medal won at the 2006 Heart of England Open.

IRISH NATIONAL SQUAD TRAINING

Yamakwai Irish Squad Members: Fiona Barr, Gemma Reynolds, Lisa Kearney, Debbie Doherty, Mary-Clare Kennedy, Emma McCabe, Eoin Fleming, Paul Irwin, Matthew Rooney
Caoimhin Thompson, John Kennedy, Conor Kennedy, Neil Pimley.

Click here for full results

Gemma Reynolds, Caoimhin Thompson and John Kennedy will represent Ireland at this weeks Scottish Open. Their international selection comes on the back of some fine performances in the recent Heart of England Open and Irish Open. All three Yamakwai members (aged 14, 15 & 17) will hopefully benefit from the experience of participating in this event.

Lisa Kearney became the first player ever to win both Junior and Senior Commonwealth Judo titles today. Lisa was in devastating form winning all her contests by Ippon including former Commonwealth Champion and current Senior GB number 1, Sophie Johnston. In total Lisa had eight contests over the course of the weekend and won them all by Ippon with a combined mat time of less than 5 minutes. She was without question the Female player of these Championships. Lisa, who turned 17 two weeks ago, will be eligible to attempt to retain both Junior and Senior titles in Mauritius in two years time. John Kennedy was Yamakwai’s only other representative today in the Junior men –73kg category. John narrowly missed out on the bronze medal after losing to his Scottish opponent by shido in ‘Golden Score’. Click here to download full results.

Ireland’s top international, Lisa Kearney, led by example today winning Gold in the Junior Commonwealth Championships. Lisa won all her four contests by Ippon (inside the first minute) in a very professional performance. Team mates Lisa Cardwell and Gemma Reynolds also performed superbly to win Silver and Bronze medals respectively. All the Yamakwai players who competed today performed very well and benefited enormously from the experience of international competition.

Nine Yamakwai players have qualified to participate in the forthcoming Commonwealth Judo Championships in Derry. This is the first time since 1988 that the Commonwealth Judo event has been hosted here and it gives many of our club players an opportunity to participate in a major international competition. Confirmed entries for the event currently stand at 21 countries. Representing Yamakwai are Lisa Kearney –52kg, Emma Louise McCabe –63kg and Cushla Rogers. In the Junior (-20yrs) event we have Lisa Cardwell –44kg, Gemma Reynolds –48kg, Lisa Kearney –52kg, Debbie Doherty –57kg, Antonia Breslin –57kg, Caoimhin Thompson –60kg and John Kennedy –73kg.

Lisa Kearney won Ireland’s first ever Gold medal in an EJU Junior World Cup Event (formerly ‘A’ tournament) in Lithuania in April. Lisa won all her contests by Ippon in an ideal start to the EJU Junior circuit. This performance followed a promising showing in the GB World Cup in Birmingham where Lisa won her first Senior World ranking points before losing to the current World number one, Thelma Montiero of Portugal. Lisa’s preparations for the forthcoming Commonwealth Championships will next involve a training camp in Lyon in May. Multiple Irish Champion, Debbie Doherty will also participate in the EJU camp. Click to view medal photo.

The Sports Council Youth Games took place in Andersonstown Leisure Centre on May 14th. The superb atmosphere found at these championships is what sets it apart from other events on the Judo calendar. This year was no different with the return of competitive Judo to the West Belfast venue after an absence of 18 years. County Antrim took top honours in the Girl’s category while Derry retained the dominance in the Boy’s. Click to see photo. Click here for full results.

Last weekend the club recorded the best performance in an Irish Championships in twenty years. Twenty-one of our finest competitors made the journey to the National Judo centre in Finglas, Dublin where they swept the boards winning nearly three times as many Irish titles as the second best club in the country. Yamakwai’s status as the best Judo club in the country was strengthened further with an incredible 15 Irish titles. Read more