A Brief update from the Chair of some key events and recent news from April:

Hi Judo Community,

Starting with some good news and the fact that our very own Director, James McBeath, passed his IJF (A) Referee Award. I believe this makes James one of only 6 referees in Britain who are qualified to this level. I’ve worked with James for many years on the Board and can vouch that he thoroughly deserves the honour. Well Done!

And let’s hear it for Chris Murphy, who never disappoints! Chris has been selected for the Virtus Global Games that are being held in Vichy, France. As always, the whole of Scotland will be rooting for you Chris!

With sadder news, my thoughts turn to Donald Hughes who suddenly passed away this month. As a boy I regularly visited the club he ran during the 70s and 80s, and my thoughts go out to his family. A fine man.

At this point, I’d like to acknowledge that JudoScotland has appointed five new Talent Development Support Coaches. I believe that this is important for the future of JudoScotland and the development of our current programmes. I have no doubt they will be an absolute asset to our sport.

I’d also like to welcome Sarah Birrell, our new sportscotland Partnership Manager, whom I caught up with at last night’s Board Meeting. I’m sure you’ll be hearing more from Sarah in the coming months.

In other JudoScotland news, as in the previous year, a working group has continued to review our articles to improve our governance further and bring us in line with top organisations. This is a time-consuming and lengthy process, but I do feel that we are moving in the right direction.

The team is currently working on a provisional events/competition framework for 2024 which we aim to get out to you all as soon as it’s complete to allow you to organise your calendar. Doing it this far in advance will hopefully enable us to get venue availability spread more evenly throughout the year. We have been listening!

I look forward to seeing you all at the upcoming Grand Prix and Scottish All Star Championship this month.

Thanks

Marc