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World Sports Games 2019

Team JFAUK have returned from the 2019 CSIT World Sports Games in Tortosa, Spain, coming away with two bronze medals

Matsuura International Cup

A big congratulations to the JFAUK team who travelled to the Matsuura International Cup in Greece last weekend. Growing year

JFAUK Ne-Waza Championships

Congratulations to all who took part in the 2019 JFAUK London Ne-waza tournament. A fantastic day of Judo with a

Bulgaria Exchange 2019

JFAUK have just returned from Sofia where we enjoyed an exchange with our Bulgarian friends. The exchange was initiated last

WJF Miyazaki Cup 2019

Team JFAUK have just returned from the 2019 WJF Miyazaki International Cup held in Thessaloniki, Greece. A superb trip saw

2019 JFAUK London International Open

Congratulations to everybody who took part in the JFAUK London International Open this past weekend. With over 140 competitors from

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Well done to all the judoka who took part in the JFAUK area randori session today. Our 3 hour area randori sessions bring together judoka from all across the UK to train, test and integrate with one another on the tatami.
A fantastic session with plenty of hard work and sweat shared!

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Don’t forget, this Sunday we have our London area Randori at 3:30pm - 6:30pm at @sobelljudoclub.

The Randori Session is open to all Judoka regardless of organisation. Just remember to wear a white Gi and please bring your license with you.

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JFAUK are proud to announce that we will be attending the third WJF World Traditional Judo Championships which will be incorporated into the 8th International World Martial Arts Games taking place in Carrara, Italy.

Drawing competitors from over 40 counties and held every two years, the International Martial Arts games bring together all martial arts in a worldwide event that celebrates and showcases different forms of fighting.

JFAUK are proud to be working with the WJF and its affiliated bodies to provide yet another international platform for our judoka to express their skills. The judo delegation for this event will be led by Italian high grades Alfredo Vismara (9th Dan) and Guiesppe Vismara (9th Dan). The Italian duo will also be running an international training camp and will be supported by JFAUK’s own Sampson Sampson (8th Dan) for the event.

The WJF World Traditional Judo Championships extends the continuous growth of JFAUK and the WJF and continues to highlight the desire for pure, traditional judo felt by judoka across the world. We are very excited to be part of this event and cannot wait to bring this opportunity to our members.

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Not long now until the JFAUK Summer School on the 25th-26th August in Worthing, Brighton UK. Head over to our website to find the details. It’s two days full of traditional Judo and fun by the beach!

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Team JFAUK have returned from the 2019 CSIT World Sports Games in Tortosa, Spain, coming away with two bronze medals in hand.
The first bronze medal came from Oli Relton in the senior men’s -73kg category. Oli took on an extremely tough category consisting of high level judoka from across the world and battled through into the semi finals before facing the eventual gold medalist of Iran. Despite putting up a strong performance and coming extremely close to throwing the Iranian for Ippon, Oli was unfortunately caught and had to settle for a bronze medal.

Also competing in the senior men’s -73kg category was Alex Charalambous. Despite a valiant effort, Alex was unfortunately knocked out in the group stages after falling short to the eventual finalists hailing from Iran and Italy.
The second bronze medal came from Ross Elliot in the men’s -100kg category. Ross faced a category of well accomplished judoka and battled through against Italian and Spanish judoka before eventually falling short in the semi final against the eventual gold medalist of Iran, leaving him with a bronze medal and matching his achievement from the 2017 World Sports Games in Latvia.
The final judoka of the day to step on the tatami was Sam Sampson in the men’s -81kg category. Sam took on an extremely tough category of Iranian, Spanish, Italian and Austrian judoka but was unfortunately knocked out in the group stages after drawing an extremely tough group which included the world’s current number 1 ranked judoka from Iran.
The trip proved to be successful with much experience gained by the team, who will now bring this experience back to their clubs and assist the many aspiring judoka spread across JFAUK. Held every two years, the event always draws very experienced judoka from across the world and is a true test at the highest level for our judoka. As always, we are proud of our team for taking on the challenge and congratulate our medalists. We look forward to 2021 where we can step back on the WSG tatami.

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Following a short training session, the team have now successfully weighed in and will enjoy a restful night before taking on the world tatami tomorrow! Good luck to the team, and remember you can follow them on the livestream from 10am - 3pm today here: https://player.cdnmedia.tv/embed/c3a20f14

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Good luck to the JFAUK athletes taking part in the 2019 World Sport Games which are being held in Tortosa!

The team have arrived in Tortosa and have just taken part in the parade and opening ceremony where the 3,000 athletes from the various spots and countries within the games come together to commence the start of the event.

Tomorrow, the team enjoy a light training session before stepping on the tatami on Thursday.

From JFAUK we have Alex Charalambous (-73kg), Sam Sampson (-81kg), Oli Relton (-73kg) and Ross Elliot (-100kg). You can all keep up to date with the games via the livestream available here: https://player.cdnmedia.tv/embed/c3a20f14

Good luck team!

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We have our JFAUK Summer School in Worthing, Brighton on the 25th-26th August. The course will be over two days with lots of Tachi-Waza, Ne-Waza and fun!
Head over to our website for details!

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A big congratulations to the JFAUK team who travelled to the Matsuura International Cup in Greece last weekend. Growing year on year, this regular event on the WJF international circuit drew competitors from the UK, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Syria, Macedonia, and a large team from Serbia.

JFAUK achieved Gold medals from Alex Charalambous, Sacha McClean and Karl Summerbell whilst silver medals went to Ross Elliot, Fionn Rowan, Lucian Buleandra and Bronzes went to Jonathan Coe, and Andreas Kouyialis - who unfortunately had to withdraw in the semi-final due to injury and rush to the hospital. A valiant performance was also held by Dave Dalby-Webb, however there was no medal achieved during his international debut.

In addition to the tournament an international training camp was led by JFAUK President & Chairman of the WJF Referee committee, Sampson Sampson (8th Dan) and Chairman of the WJF Technical Committee Alfredo Vismara (9th Dan). Supporting the team was WJF international Referees Samuel Betu (6th Dan) and Rob Elliot (5th Dan) as well as Midland area representative Dave Hammond (5th Dan). All in all the event was a great success with plenty of medals and experienced gained by the team.

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Juji-Gatame/Cross Arm Lock - JFAUK Newaza Championships 2019

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Harai-Goshi/Sweeping Hip from a kneeling position during the Junior contest - JFAUK Newaza Championships 2019

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Yoko-Shiho-Gatame/ Side four quarter hold - JFAUK London Newaza Championships 2019

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Gyaku-Juji-Jime/Reverse Cross Choke from Dō-Osae/ Trunk Hold or ‘Guard’ - JFAUK London Newaza Championships 2019

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Hanshi Sampson Sampson (8th Dan) with Sensei Samuel Betu (6th Dan) watching the shiai/competition - Bulgarian Exchange 2019

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Okuri-Eri-Jime transition/Sliding collar strangle - Bulgarian Exchange 2019

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JFAUK 🇬🇧 Team member and WJF European Champion Ross Elliot (2nd Dan) @clubjudoka training with JFAGR 🇬🇷 President Avgerinos Maistrellis (5th Dan) - Bulgarian Exhange 2019

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JFAUK President Hanshi Sampson Sampson (8th Dan) teaching a variation of Kata Ha Jime/Single Wing Choke - Bulgarian Exchange 2019

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Kenka Yotsu/Asymmetrical Gripping - Bulgarian Exchange 2019

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JFAGR 🇬🇷 President Avgerinos Maistrellis with the chairman of the Bulgarian Deaf Judo Association 🇧🇬, Hristo Stanyochev

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JFAUK🇬🇧 International referee Samuel Betu with JFABG 🇧🇬 Chairman Radoslav Dachin

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JFAUK🇬🇧 President Sampson Sampson with JFABG 🇧🇬President Kayolan Kolev - Bulgarian Exchange 201

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‘Shiai’/Contest - Bulgaria Exhange 2019
Don’t forget we have our Newaza Championships this Sunday! For details find the event on our website or Facebook in the description.

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Great work from Sussex area representative Chris Cooper who spent time passing on his knowledge to students of the Gambian Judo Association.

Chris had the pleasure for visiting Gambia and made an effort to reach out to clubs in order to create new friendships and extend out network of judoka across the world.

Chris’ judo was extremely well recurved, Luc Paziaud, president of the Gambian judo association stated “we had the big pleasure of having Chris Cooper 5th Dan with us for a too short period in Gambia. During this short period he tirelessly sacrificed his time to visit most of our dojos, sharing with us his vast knowledge of Judo. It was inspiring moment for all of us. He showed us what it is to be a great judoka: refined technique and the hearth of a true lion: the power to be friendly. Mutual help. We are all impatiently waiting for him to return so that we can share again some judo together.”

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JFAUK President, Hanshi Sampson Sampson 8th Dan and International Referee Sensei Samuel Betu 6th Dan running through some movement drills at the technical seminar with JFA Bulgaria 🇧🇬 and JFA Greece 🇬🇷- JFABG Bulgarian Exchange 2019

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(2 of 2) Following the training, a friendly inter-club open weight tournament took place between 23 Bulgarian and British judoka. After a truly superb display of ippon judo, the friendly competition came to a close with JFAUK’s Sam Sampson taking gold and Jason Baird taking bronze alongside the silver and second bronze won by Bulgarian Judoka. After the open-weight tounament a mixed nation team event was held to further encourage integration and friendship between the Judoka, with 4 means each consisting of 4 Judoka from both Bulgaria and the U.K.

Concluding a long day of judo, our Bulgarian hosts treated the team to a night of traditional Bulgarian cuisine before the teams headed to bed.
The following morning the Bulgarian team were keen to show off their city by providing a tour of Sofia, highlighting its culture and history along the way. After an enjoyable walk around the Bulgarian capital, it was time for team JFAUK to head home.
The exchange proved to be a resounding success with much judo and friendship shared each step of the way. The relationship between JFAUK and JFABG growths in strength each day and we are excited to have Bulgaria as one of the many destinations on our annual calendar.
We thank Kayolan Kolev, his team and all our hosts on their extremely generous hospitality and can not wait to see them again in the near future. Next up for JFAUK is the WJF Matsuura international Cup which will be taking place in Thessaloniki, Greece!

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(1 of 2) JFAUK have just returned from Sofia where we enjoyed an exchange with our Bulgarian friends.
The exchange was initiated last year when the Bulgarian team, led by Kayolan Kolev (2nd Dan) - a highly skilled judoka and Sambo world medalist - visited the U.K. This weekend we returned the visit with a team of 9 Judoka keen to experience true Eastern European judo. The friendship between JFAUK and Bulgarian has been blossoming over the past 5 years after first meeting in Thessaloniki on the WJF international circuit during 2015. In 2018, after many talks and growing frustrations with modern judo, Kayolan Kolev and his team decided to follow the path set out by the founding members of JFAUK and initiated his own Bulgarian extension of JFAUK and the WJF, JFABG. The decision saw the new Bulgarian federation join a growing series of newly established judo federations keen to keep true traditional judo alive. With JFABG, there are now five separate federations all directly working alongside Sampson and JFAUK to further ignite traditional judo, joining the many other countries each supporting the WJF. Our visit to Sofia therefore further extends our friendships and continues the visions first shared when Kayolan and Sampson first met.

The weekend exchange began with a one day seminar led by JFAUK President Sampson Sampson and JFAUK International Referee Samuel Betu, who together spent the morning focusing on movements developing Ippon Seoi Nage. Toward the afternoon, Sampson showed a series of twisting eri jime techniques to highlight how creative judo ne-waza techniques can be. A video highlighting the session will be available on Sampson’s YouTube channel, Sampson Judo. The training session was supported by JFABG President Kayolan Kolev, JFABG Chairman Radoslav Dachin and their team. Also supporting The training session was JFAGR President Avgerinos Mastresllis who travelled from Thessaloniki to support the event and enjoy the exchange between friends.

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Today, the JFAUK team are off to Bulgaria for an International seminar with JFABG 🇧🇬 and JFAGR 🇬🇷. It’s going to be a busy weekend full of Judo, make sure to watch our story to follow the action.

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LATEST NEWS

JFAUK News

World Sports Games 2019

Matsuura International Cup

JFAUK Ne-Waza Championships

Bulgaria Exchange 2019

WJF Miyazaki Cup 2019

2019 JFAUK London International Open

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