British Judo search for female Paralympic potential
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British Judo Association 02 August 2010
The British Judo Association has today launched a ‘Paralympic Potential’ talent search, in association with UK Sport, Paralympics GB and the English Institute of Sport, to find more female visually impaired judoka to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games.
Talent search poster
With just over two years to go to the Paralympic Games, this will be the final push to find more women within the sport of judo that have the potential to progress and compete in London 2012.
Great Britain fielded a team of just four players in the men’s competition at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games and no players in the women’s competition. Whilst British Judo’s Paralympic Programme Manager, Dave Sanders, can be confident of fielding a full men’s team this year, there are currently only two women on the programme.
“At the Paralympic Games there are six female weight categories and at the moment we only have two female players on the VI Squad.
“It would be unrealistic to say we could field a full team in the women’s competition, but certainly we want to have at least three players that are able to put in fantastic performances and hopefully win medals,” Sanders said.
The British Judo Paralympic Programme staff will look to work with potential players very closely and fast track them where possible, giving them a real fighting opportunity of competing at the Paralympics, as they are doing with their newest recruit Lesley Reid.
48-year-old Reid from Hertfordshire has been a coach at Melbourn Judo Club for many years and never thought her eyesight was bad enough to classify her as visually impaired.
“In 2004 I had a problem with one of my eyes, a condition called myopic macular degeneration, and then in 2006 it started happening to my other eye as well and it was at that point that I had to stop driving.
“I took the test last year after Dave and my family persuaded me and then forgot all about it as I didn’t think I would be partially sighted enough to qualify or good enough to be able to compete in a Paralympic Games.
“But then I got an email from British Blind Sport saying that I was measured as a B3, which is the least visually impaired category and at that point, I knew I had to go for it!”
This year, Lesley was selected to compete in the VI World Championships in Turkey alongside a team of five, and won a bronze medal.
At the time she said, “I was really not expecting to medal, the World Championships are just the beginning for me so to win a medal is a real bonus.”
A man that knows all too well the excitement of a Paralympic Games and the honour of being selected, Ian Rose, five-time Paralympian and two-time Paralympic medallist, has joined the BJA as Talent Development Coordinator.
“We are essentially looking to work with visually impaired females already doing judo or have been through the early grades and who have got the potential to improve.
“Some of these players might not know whether they are partially sighted enough and what their sight classification is, but we would encourage them to get in touch anyway to see whether we can work with them,” Rose said.
Any female judo players or coaches that know someone with experience of judo, who are aged 18+ and hold a UK passport, and are visually impaired or may not know the classification, should contact Ian Rose on ian.rose@britishjudo.org.uk.
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