JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS DRAW RECORD ENTRY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31077, 4 June 1966, Page 15

JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS DRAW RECORD ENTRY

A RECORD entry of 150 has been received for the Canterbury judo championships which begin today. However, there are fewer higher graded judoka entered than in previous years. It is unfortunate that two judoka of such high calibre as J. Fielding, the current Canterbury. South Island and New Zealand junior open champion, and C. Edwards, who received a bronze medal at the national championships, should be away from Christchurch for these championships. Nevertheless, there should be some interesting and exciting bouts. The entry includes W. Hiku (Otematata). New Zealand heavyweight champion F. Best (Christchurch), South Island heavyweight champion; R. Hanham (Christchurch), South Island open champion; G. Coulson (Christchurch), New Zealand junior middleweight champion; and L. Tuck (Christchurch), South Island middleweight junior champion.

For the first time in New Zealand, a women’s Kata competition will be held and 11 entries have been re-

ceived. For the first time, too, there will be four junior grades instead of the usual two. The creation of light-weight and featherweight sections will give the smaller boys far more opportunity to test their skill against opponents of

their own size. The programme will begin at 10 a.m. and the morning will be devoted to preliminaries in the junior boys’ contests. All the other sections will begin in the afternoon, with finals later in the day.