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British Judo’s Performance
team have revealed their forthcoming training and competition
plans as the 2011 World Championships in August move into sight.
In addition to meticulously
crafted domestic training schedule at the BJPI and JudoScotland’s
National Training Centre in Ratho, a recognised British Judo Performance
Centre, the British team will utilise Olympic Training Camps,
European Judo Union camps as well as European Cup, World Cup and
Grand Slam events.
Patrick Roux, GB Head Coach,
said: “After a short recovery the GB team World Championship preparation
has commenced this week. The men’s team joined the Olympic
Training Centre in Orenburg, Russia for two weeks of intense randori
training. These players will then compete in the Orenburg
European Cup and some will then follow this up by competing in
one of the IJFs major tournaments, the Moscow Grand Slam.
“The women’s team now has
a training camp at the British Judo Performance Institute at Dartford,
with some of the USA Judo team and
are also joined by some young development GB players. Each
of the elite players have been set priority targets regarding
the Olympic Qualifying events and the GB players will use the
European Cups, as a build up to a World Cup or Grand Slam for
example. Some players will use the European Cups as a training
event often competing at a higher weight, so they do not
have to make their weight category on every occasion.
“The main target now is
the 2011 World Championships in Paris at the end of August and
players have to demonstrate good performances and medals to achieve
selection. Therefore the next set of World Cups in Madrid and
Lisbon (women) and Bucharest and Tallinn (men) in June, plus the
Moscow Grand Slam are important tournaments for players to achieve
results in. We expect to close the selection for the World
Championships in Paris for a number of weight groups after these
competitions.
“In July players will attend
the Olympic Training Camps, plus the European Judo Union camps
in Spain, Belarus, Germany before completing the final preparation
block at the BJPI, ahead of the Worlds. A few players will
also compete at the Miami World Cup and participate in their training
camp in the first week of July
“Summer time is going to
be a very busy time and we are fortunate because now we have got
a number of training opportunities at the best level, with the
introduction last year of the new EJU initiative (OTC - Going
for Gold).”
Margaret Hicks, Performance
Director, said: “We have a packed programme for our elite players
over the next 3 months leading into the World Championships and
we are now raising the bar for selection to this event and importantly
for the performances we expect players to achieve over the next
year, in order to be considered for the 2012 London Olympic team.
"We have also opened
up additional opportunities to a wider group of players with the
first set of ‘self funded’ World Cups being made available in
June, at Tallinn and Lisbon. To get approval to compete
in these World Cups a player must have won an European Cup medal
this year, or in 2010 and also be a member of the current British
Squad. This initiative will help intensify competition between
the best British players as we enter the final Olympic phase."
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