.NLJA
1997- 1998
News Around The Province:
Our Canada Winter Games Coaches have been chosen. The Coaching Team is as follows:
The team will have the help of the NCCP Committee in formulating an effective YPI for our young athletes and to give them the best opportunity to develop their skills.
Joshua Caul and Nadya Bell of St. John's School of Judo
competed at the Ontario Open on November 14th - 15th. Both represented
us well and Nadya captured a bronze medal in her division. We certainly
encourage our young atheltes to broaden their Judo experiences by competing
at a National Level and congratulations.
Felicity O'Brien has just returned from the 11th World Transplant Games held in Sydney Australia where she captured three medals in three different sports. The Games are open to competitors who are recipients of vital organ transplants (Heart, Liver, Heart/Lung, Lung, Kidney, Pancreas, Bone-Marrow). The Games drew over 1200 competitors and 800 supporters from 51 different countries and the majority of the events were held on the site of the Sydney Olympics for the year 2000. Felicity competed in the Super Veteran Catagories and brought home the following medals:
Felicity received her kidney transplant in October of 1994 and showed the world that she is obviously doing quite well! Congratulations Felicity from us all.
There was a Provincial Referee Evaluation at the NLJA Provincial Tournament
held in Gander on November 29th. The successful applicants were as follows:
| Promoted To Provincial "A" | Gerard Humber |
| Promoted To Provincial "B" | Mike LeBlanc |
| Promoted To Provincial "C" | Pat Dunne |
| Promoted To Provincial "C" | Joshua Caul |
| Promoted To Provincial "C" | Howard Sheppard |
With regret we report the passing of Dr. John Simpson, age 46 on January 22 after a lengthy battle with cancer. John was a member of MUN Judo club and was a member of the varsity team under Sensei LeGal in the late '60's and early '70's that consistantly won championships at the AAU (Atlantic Association of Universities) Judo meets in Atlantic Canada. John also competed at the Atlantic competitions as recently as 1994 and was awarded Shodan in 1995. There was a moment of silence for John at the opening of the recent Regional Judo Competition in St. John's. He will be missed.
Congratulations to both Marco Chiaramonte and Kerri Short who
represented us at the Junior Nationals in Abbotsford British Columbia.
Both did extremely well in a very competitive tournament and both were
in divisions with large numbers of competitors . Both won a number of
fights with Marco just missing the Bronze medal. Congratulations to
you both!
We made our best showing yet in Atlantic competition at the Junior Atlantics held in P.E.I. on the weekend of March 28th. With a team of five competitors we brought home five medals, three gold, one silver and one bronze. Congratulations to the following competitors:
Nadya Bell |
Gold |
Joseph Seifert |
Gold |
Peter Seifert |
Gold |
Tamara Hebner |
Silver |
Joshua Caul |
Bronze |
Joshua Caul also refereed at the Atlantics and has subsequently been promoted to Provincial "B". Congratulations Josh !
We had an extremely successful clinic at Mun dojo the week of May 18 -23 conducted by Sensei John Huntley from the Aberdeen Judo Club in Kamloops, B.C. Sensei Huntley spent over 20 hours on the mat with us and covered everything from kid's Judo, competitive techniques and drills as well as the finer points of the major katas. Pictures will be posted in the NLJA Guest Photo Album section when ready.
Congratulations to The Indian Head Judo Club in Stephenville who was voted as The Best Martial Arts Club in the Province outside the Avalon Peninsula by the readers of The Newfoundland Herald.
This year for the first time, 2 members of the NLJA attended the Budokan Camp in Ontario. This was an international camp which involved both the Canadian and American Junior National teams. The camp was instructed by all Canadian champions, world and olympic medal winners. The 2 judoka that attended this camp were Nadya Bell (Brown Belt) and Josh Caul (Brown Belt) both from the St. John's School of Judo and coached by Tom Gallant 4th Dan. Josh went on to compete at the Ontario International Invitational Tournament and received coaching by Jim Walker 5th Dan (coach of 8 Canadian Champions). As well, Josh trained with Stephen Sheffeld (former Olympic Bronze Medalist)and his wife Archa (Commonwealth Champion), one week before the tournament.
