RHYS THOMAS
JUDOKA from the Cairns Judo Club put on a show for their members and spectators on the Cairns Esplanade last Friday evening, celebrating World Judo Day with a special bring a friend event.
As one of the newer judo clubs in the region, the founders of Cairns Judo Club decided to host their event somewhere they could get a bit more exposure and foot traffic, and they thought where better than the Cairns Esplanade?
The club set up a mat in one of the large, grassed areas and put on a show for the judoka, their families, Cairns locals and even tourists who revealed they competed as well.
One of the club’s founders and head coaches, third degree black belt (Sandan) Xavier Barker, said it was a great day and lots of people, judoka and spectators alike, enjoyed themselves.
“Every year the theme changes to do with one of the values of judo; courtesy, courage, honesty, honour, modesty, respect, self-control and friendship which was this year’s theme,” he said.
“Where we train we don’t have a high profile, we are almost invisible so we decided to do it down on the Esplanade where we were guaranteed some pedestrian traffic.
“We had about 20 seniors and perhaps that many kids as well on the mats and people sitting around having a picnic, enjoying some pizza and doing some judo.”
Sandan Barker said it was great to see a few Cairns locals approach the mats and inform some of the instructors that they used to practise.
A few international visitors also expressed an interest in coming into the club to keep their skills polished which included a person from Sweden and another from Germany.
“Whether or not we get any visitors out of it doesn’t really matter, it was fun and something different,” Sandan Barker said.
The Cairns Judo Club is one of the newer judo clubs in the region being established in 2020, and trains out of the Cairns Youth and Rec centre on Mulgrave Road.
The club just recently received funding from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund to invest in some marketing and further training for its numerous instructors and coaches.
If you would like to learn judo in Cairns, you can contact Xavier by sending an email to xavier@cairnsjudoclub.com.
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