The European Judo Union last month accepted a Maltese bid to organize the European Cadet Championships in the year 2007. The decision was taken during their Annual Congress in Budapest.
This entailed a lot of hard work and lobbying by the President, Mr Envic Galea. He had to deal with the various Government Departments and NGOs to secure the necessary commitments from them in order to be in a position to do a professional proposal demonstrating that Malta could seriously hold this international event with the desired standard and success.
These Cadet Championships are being held in June 2007 at the Cottonera Sports Complex. The youngsters eligible to participate are those born in 1991 or 1992.
The Malta Judo Federation is planning to participate in these Championships with a full team if possible, that is one judoka in each male and female weight category – 16 athletes in all. In order to do this the MJF is launching Project 2007.
The Project’s aim is to prepare a team of male and female judokas up to the level with which they can participate successfully in the 2007 Cadet European Championships.
For participation in this Project the MJF will be inviting those judokas born in 1991 and 1992 and who are currently attending judo lessons at a club or who no longer attend any judo sessions but who were MJF members in past years. Apart from these the association will be inviting complete beginners through a call to the public.
The Preparation Programme will be spread over a 29-month period. This will take into consideration that the eligible athletes are only be 12 and 13 year olds currently (2004) but will reach the age of 15 and 16 in 2007.
It is imperative that the athletes who will accept to participate in this project will take the training programme seriously and must be committed to attend regularly. Naturally, for this Project to be successful there is also the need for the cooperation of parents, guardians, older relatives, etc. Unless both are ready to offer their commitment for the whole length of the Project, that is 2½ years, then it will be futile for an athlete to start the Training Programme.
For this reason the federation is holding a meeting for eligible judoka together with their parents on Saturday at 12.30pm at St Aloysius Sports Complex, Birkirkara. During this meeting the project will be explained in more detail.