Staff
Over the course of the last month, the Borderland Judo Club attended two high-level judo competitions and brought home some hardware.
Josh Brusven won gold in the Novice heavyweight division at the Minnesota State Championships held on May 12.
He also competed up an age division there and claimed silver.
Gord Witherspoon, meanwhile, claimed top spot in the Masters lightweight Open division.
Morgan Good-Thurber nabbed silver in the advanced men’s aged 14-16 division while Bennet MacDonald won a hard-earned bronze in the advanced boys’ middleweight division.
Then on May 19, Jaden Woolsey and chief instructor, Chuck MacDonald, travelled to Calgary for the national championships.
Woolsey competed in the U16 men’s 60-kg advanced belts division, where things started out a bit stressful as he was 1.5 kg over weight on the morning of weigh-ins.
But with some hard work, he eventually weighed in at a 59.9 kg.
With MacDonald coaching matside, Woolsey fought his way to a respectable fifth-place finish out of 16 fighters.
“I can say that when you put 16 equally-trained, dedicated, motivated, and fired up judoka in a division . . . nothing is held back and they all were going for gold,” MacDonald said.
“Jaden competed very well at his national-level tournament,” he noted.
“The experience he gained from competing at this level of judo will make him a force to be reckoned with next season at the regional and provincial level.
“And hopefully again at the national level.”
MacDonald also said Borderland Judo is now a well-established judo club in the region.
“With the kids making the advanced belts and the core group training hard, I see nothing but good results and Borderland Judo continuing to succeed at all the tournaments– from local to national level,” he enthused.
