TeamNZJudo

Pat Toner is awarded 7th Dan!

Pat Toner, senior member of our team to the world masters has been awarded his 7th Dan reports The Dominion Post

 Pat who fought with us in Brussels is a regular at the World Masters and the new comers to the event really enjoyed his company and his insights into the borth of the New Zealand Judo Federation. Pat had only recently come to New Zealand form the U.K. when the federation was founded. With 60 years of mat time, he is a perfect example of Judo as a way of life.

It was an honour for the younger members of the masters team to spend time with Pat in Brussels and on behalf of all the Brussels team, I/we would like to congratulate Pat on his 7th Dan.

- Lance.

TeamNZJudo at the World Masters 2008.

Here is a small team photo of all but two of the team who attended the World Masters 2008.
Left to right we have:

Pete
Lance
Antoinette
Mike R
Aaron
Joyce

Antoinette & Joyce both won medals (unlike like the chaps).
Both are living in Auckland and training (from Memory) at Judokwai.

NZers in Belgium & TeamNZJudo.

As you'll know if you have been following this blog, whilst in Brussels we shared an evening with the New Zealanders in Belgium club.
It was a great evening out and we enjoyed socialising with fellow Kiwis based away from home.

A quick update before summaries later this week.

Hi Everyone,

well the competition is over and we are returning to the real world of work and such.
We have some photos and videos to post later this week, but to till then, here is a youtube video from some TV coverage of the event.

This footage is about Adil Belgaid, who is the fighter Lance fought in his first match.
He isa classy fighter and we enjoyed watching his fights!

Day 2 - Results

Today, Mike Sexton, Aaron Scott & Lance Wicks competed.

Aaron fought a a Brazilian in the first round, where it went to golden score and Aaron lost on a penalty. His second match was against a Russian, which went Wazari-Awasete against Aaron.

Mike, fought a French man in the first round (loss), Englishman in second round (win) and a Brazilian in the third (loss).

Lance, fought a Morocan in the first round and lost by Yuko (osae komi). The Morocan went on to be a finalist. His second was against a Frenchman where Lance caught him for Ippon with a Ura Nage. Finally he fought another Frenchman who unfortunately caught him for Ippon with a left Taio Toshi.

This evening we are heading out to have a couple of drinks with the New Zealanders in Belgium club, who kindly invited us to their monthly pub night, then tomorrow we shall be there to watch Mike Ritson compete.

Day 1 _ results.

Hi All,

Team NZ picked up two medals at the World Masters today!
Pat Toner got the national anthem played for us, GOLD!.

The second medal was not technically ours, we claim as ours despite the fact it technically went to Great Britain.
Joyce Malley, won her division! Now Joyce is not a Kiwi, but she has been living in Auckland for quite a while now, so we claim that medal for ourselves too! ;-)

Tomorrow Aaron & Lance compete in the -90 and -100 divisions, more medals?

Good night!

2008 World Masters Day 1

Hi Everyone,

well the team has all arrived safe and well in Brussels

Here is a quick (sideways) photo of the outside of the venue.

News from the trip - Live

As we travel we shall try and update as much as we can via twitter ( www.twitter.com ).

We have received offical sanction!

We are really pleased to have received an email this morning from the president of the NZ Judo Federation offically approving our team!

Here is the important bit of the email:

"... Please accept this email as a formal approval for your team to represent New Zealand in the upcoming World Masters and Good Luck to you all..."

This has come directly from Harry O'Rourke, President of the New Zealand Judo Federation.
This is great news for the team and Harry's support is a real boost just before we compete!!!

T-Shirts and our billions!

Hi Everyone,

this will probably be the last communication on the Blog until we arrive in Brussels.
And it has some great news contained within it!

Steph (from the facebook group) & Aaron have managed to get some t-shirts done at the last moment, after the previous plans fell through due to... well due to budget cuts. :(

AWESOME!!!

Maybe we'll be able to pay them back for their awesome efforts, seeing as someone has just made us a serious offer of $20 Billion as a donation!!
That's a serious offer from someone by the way! $20 Billion!!!

Shame it is Zimbabwe money and is worth I think about twenty pounds!!

Seriously though, the donation is really REALLY REALLY appreciated! As are they all, we shall be writing individually to all donors and thanking them and shall also publish a list here on the blog.
Every penny helps this little team, so thank you so much to all the current donors and to everyone who donates after we post this!

So... till Brussels then!