What a fantastic day at the National Grading on Sunday October 8th. This was one of the biggest turnouts we ever had with one short of 70 taking part including 14 females.
A tremendous atmosphere saw two new confirmed 1st Dans in Aedan O’Doherty from Konarakai who achieved Batsugan ( Five Ippons from five contests) and John Mulhern from Abbey who got the 30 points he needed.
Lauren McClintock from Abbey also got her points for 1st Dan and she will be confirmed when she has done her theory.
Another judoka who achieved Batsugan was Omar Nouhi from Wild Geese who was promoted to 2nd Dan.
We had two new 3rd Dans in Ben Fletcher from Yamakwai and Darren Quail from St.Peters.
Chris Wilson from Abbey was a happy man going home after winning his final points for 4th Dan.
Although Sergejs Maskalenko won his final points towards 5th Dan ( on his birthday) he will have to wait out his time as a 4th Dan before he can receive his acknowledgement but he will not mind that. – Sergejs Maskalenko (subject to waiting period)
There were 19 new 2nd Kyu and 10 new 1st Kyu grades awarded so the future looks bright for Irish Judo.
Harry McGuigan – Chair of the IJA Grading Commission
