The IJA Women in Sport Commission, along with the IJA Refereeing Commission, is delighted to support Sarah O’Gara on her fast-track programme to International Refereeing. Of course, thanks to Sport Ireland, which makes this support possible through the Women in Sport Funding.
Enjoy Sarah’s report of her continued International refereeing journey at the Welsh Open, October 2024 which is below:
Pre-Cadet/Cadet Welsh Open 2024 – Sarah O’Gara Referee Report
I refereed at the Pre-Cadet and Cadet Welsh Open 2024 on the 26th/27th of October 2024 along with Chris Hickey who travelled to the event as a mentor. The Welsh Open is a British Judo Association (BJA) event held in the Sport Wales National Centre, Cardiff. The event is a Level 3 event for Pre-Cadets and a Level 4 event for Cadets. The difference in level meant that rules around medical treatment, allowed techniques, and general strictness with shidos varied slightly throughout the event, which added additional variables to the day of refereeing.
The event was split over 2 days with Cadet males and Pre-Cadet females competing on Saturday, and Cadet females and Pre-Cadet males competing on Sunday. Similar to the Junior/Senior Welsh Open that I attended in September, the level of BJA referees present at the event was quite high. I was assigned to mat 3, with Natasha Maslen (IJF B) and Carol Leverton (Senior National) leading our mat. This was a great opportunity for me to better understand the IJF refereeing process from Natasha, who had recently passed the IJF B exam.
Overall, the weekend of refereeing went very well, and I had the opportunity to gain more experience refereeing over several days which we don’t get much of in Ireland. I challenged my refereeing skills, needing to make difficult scoring decisions over the weekend. The event was also livestreamed and I was able to re-watch my refereeing and see where I could improve.
I received positive feedback from both Natasha and Carol. Carol was especially pleased with my performance and eager to see me progress through my refereeing career, offering me an opportunity to referee at the British School Championships next March if the IJA is willing to support this.
Some positives I received about my refereeing were:
- Overall my refereeing was very good with little issues arising over the weekend.
- I responded positively to feedback and took it on board to improve as the weekend went on.
- Senior referees within the BJA are willing to give me opportunities to continue to grow.
Some areas I could make improvements:
- To be more confident in decisions to award shidos to players. I sometimes hesitated waiting for confirmation that it was the correct decision.
- At the start of the weekend, I stayed on the back edge of the mat too much when I could have moved more with the direction of the contest.
- Sometimes I called matte too early in ne-waza when I could have let it progress a bit longer.
October 26th & 27th , 2024|National, Sport Ireland, Women in Sport
