After having had to cancel the scheduled event when a month’s rainfall came down in half a day, the 33rd national championships were rescheduled for the following Saturday at St Aloysius College sport hall.
The turn out was very encouraging and more than 160 judokas came over with their friends and relatives. The programme started with the young Dragons, showing the spectators their skills, under the watchful eyes of their instructors and that of Andrew Bertie, MJF 3rd Dan Black Belt, in Judogi with national colours.
The Young Judokas participated by showing basic exercises which culminated with a 30 second “Randori” (free practice).
Under these conditions, the instructors could follow their improvement and watch out for exceptional skills in competition. At this stage everybody is a winner and after the “Espoir” (young hopefuls) 12-14 year olds, took part in the Espoir national championships, all the dragons stepped on the highest podium, that of the first place. They received the gold medal of participation from Andrew Bertie himself.
Cadets (15 – 16 Years)
After a short break, and after the senior section of the Judokas, warmed up, the Cadet category got under way.
This was Jerome Zammit’s last chance as he will be 17 next year, and here he was completely dominant, eliminating all opposition with an IPPON (full points).
Chris Zarb, in the under 73kgs, is also showing great talents for the future.
Espoir (12 – 14 Years)
Bonnici Adrian a young judoka still in the Espoir (young hopefuls) showed the greatest talent where in the under 46kg category he had to fight his way up the ladder to the first place, beating Shawn Bumber, in the final event.
Other promising athletes in this category where Jeremy Saywell, Scerri Mavric, Bezzina Isac and Shawn Farrugia.
Alex Attard won the under 50kgs convincingly winning against Shawn Busuttil and Darren D Micallef. Bernard Bezzina won the under 55kgs category and Aaron Bezzina was the winner of the under 60kgs. Mark Anthony Cachia took gold in the under 73kgs. Two promising girls in the Espoir were Stephanie Camilleri and Tamara Cardona who won the under 63kgs.
Juniors (-20 Years)
Jerome Zammit also contested this age category and won the under 60kgs title. Other champions in the age category were Frendo Michael in the heavy weight under 100kgs and Debbie Zammit in the under 57kgs.
Seniors (+15 Years)
Five athletes that distinguished themselves in the senior category were Macron Bezzina (-63kgs), Edward Attard (-73Kgs), Fernando Mifsud (-81Kgs), Jerome Zammit (-60KGS), Michael Zahra (+100kgs). These are all title holders in the senior category together with Franky Bonello (-66kgs), Neville Thomas (-90kgs), Joanna Farrugia (-70kgs), Ritianne Bondin (-78Kgs)
Open Category
After the weight categories were finished all the athletes had the opportunity to enter the open weight category.
These are divided in the under 73kgs and over 73kgs for men and under 63kgs and over 63kgs for woman. Edward Attard convincingly won the under 63kgs and Michael Zahra was the undistributed champion in heavy weight.
Marcon Bezzina not only managed to be the queen of Andorra but decided to compete in both categories, winning both the under 63kgs and the over 63kgs, where she was heavily under weight.
The medals were presented by Andrew Bertie who was surprised by the amount of young promising athletes in the sport of judo.