News Archive

Junior/Senior Provincial Team Announcements

The Junior and Senior Provincial Teams have been announced. Click here to view the junior team, and here to view the senior team.


Referee News

December 17, 2008

On November 11, 2008, the IJF Referee Commission announced changes to the Judo Contest Rules that will take effect on January 1, 2009. Click here to view/download a package detailing these changes.

IJF Kata World Cup

November 28, 2008

Hi everyone, I just wanted to give you a summary of the IJF Kata World Cup that Gord and I attended in Paris this past week. We had an incredible experience!

There were 23 countries represented in 5 katas. While many countires entered multiple teams, each team could only enter one kata, rather than the multiple entries we often see here. Each Kata was divided into two pools, with each pair in the pools performing their kata once. The top three teams from each pool then went forward into the finals to perform one more time, with the top three performances from the second round being the medal winners.

Our kata, Katame no Kata, had 16 teams. We finished 5th in our pool with a score of 455 ? the margins between the teams was very tight, as the third place to advance to the medal round had 463.

Overall, we finished 8th out of 16 not in the medals, but 8th in the World is not bad (attached are the winning scores). The margins between the winning teams and the higher ranked teams were tight generally in both Katame and Nage no Kata compare this to the margins in Kime and Goshin, where the winning teams had over a 100 point difference on others!

The winning teams, as expected, were primarily Japan, Italy and Spain. All three countries sent large teams, and devote a great many resources to Kata - for example, the 5 Japanese teams had three coaches and several managers/assistants/trainers. We understand that the Italian and Spanish teams are paid, train full time year round at a National Kata Centre, have full time coaches and trainers, and also visit the Kodokan for several weeks each year. The Italians and Spanish were also well known to a number of the judges, most of whom were European. While I did not see favoritism, being known never hurts!

We were fortunate to see all of the winning teams close up in dojo training sessions and in the tournament. Gord and I have picked up many valuable points, not only in Katame, but in the other katas as well. There is definitely an IJF approach to the katas that differs in some respects from the North American approach, and we feel that this exposure will allow us to work these differences into our repertoire.

This was a wonderful opportunity, and it was a privilege to have the chance to go and learn so much. We look forward to sharing our new knowledge here in Alberta.

See you all soon,
Kelly Palmer

IJF Contest Rule Changes Effective Jan. 1, 2009

November 26, 2008

Click here to view the changes to the IJF Contest.

National News

August 1/08

After the 2008 Canadian National Kata Championships held in Quebec City on May 23rd, 2008, the National Grading Board noted a transcription error in the Nage no Kata score sheet for Kelly Palmer and Gord Okamura. The score sheets for all teams were carefully reviewed and the errors were corrected. The following top three teams and their points are:

Okamura/Palmer 1013.5
Robbe/Pearson 1009.5
Arsenault/Guertin 994

As a result Kelly and Gord were awarded the Gold Medal for Nage no Kata, having previously been awarded a second place finish.

Junior Nationals Team News

June 10/08

Junior Nationals Team Announcement

Click here to read the announcement.

Olympic News

May 13/08

Keith Morgan has secured his fourth trip to the Olympics! Congratulations from Judo Alberta! Gambatte!

To read more, please click here.

Visit Keith's new site at morganjudo2008.com.

AGM News

April 17/08
Notice of By-laws Amendments - PDF
Voting By Proxy 2008 - PDF

Provincial News

April 2, 2008
2008 Senior National Team

Click here to view the 2008 Senior National Team


January 11, 2008
Alberta Winter Games Official Rosters

To view the official rosters from the Alberta Winter Games, please click here. Rosters from Zones 1-8 are available, and they are listed in the PDF in numerical order.


December 31, 2007
Dr. Senda Named Member of Order of Canada

Judo Alberta is tremendously proud to announce that Dr. Yoshio Senda of the Lethbridge Judo Club was named a member of the Order of Canada December 28, 2007. Thanks to all of the people that worked behind the scenes to make this happen including Senator Joyce Fairbairn, James Kendricks, Adrien Landry, staff of the Japanese Consulate in Calgary.

Here is the official wording from the Government website:

Yoshio Senda, C.M.
Lethbridge, Alberta
Member of the Order of Canada

For his contributions to the development and expansion of judo in Canada, as a coach, mentor and role model for more than five decades.

Congratulations Dr. Senda!


October 13, 2007, San Jose, California
Fukuda International Kata Tournament

Judo Alberta was well represented at the 19th Annual Fukuda International Kata Championship in San Jose, California, with men and women’s teams winning medals.

Gord Okamura and Kelly Palmer won Gold in four events: Nage no Kata, Katame no Kata, Kime no Kata and Ju No Kata. These wins earned enough points so that they were awarded the Male Grand Championship for the tournament.

Mika Senda and Julia Lindeman won the Bronze Medal in Women’s Ju No Kata.

In addition, Jane Senda, Joanne Lavergne, Jennifer Parker, Raquel Austin, Vickie Nakagama and Florence Senda all competed in the Ju No Kata.

The Fukuda International Kata Championship is the oldest and largest Judo Kata event of its kind in North America. Started by Keiko Fukuda, who at 9th Dan is the world's highest ranking woman Judoka, the event celebrates Judo Kata in areas such as throwing, grappling and self defense. At age 94 Fukuda Sensei still presides over the tournament, and was a judge at this year’s competition.


August 24/07
Keith Morgan wins Silver at Pan Am Games July 20, 2007

Keith Morgan (Ishi Yama Judo Club-Calgary) won a Silver medal at the Pan Am Games in Rio de Janeiro Friday, July 20th.

"It was a pretty good day and I was happy with how I fought", Morgan said. "I had a 'kind' draw and beat Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic both by ippon on my way to the final".

Morgan, who fought a tough fight with a Cuban in the final match, lost by a koka in the last 3 seconds before going to overtime. While Morgan must hold the number one position in Canada to attend the next Olympic games, the Silver medal division adds to his chances of accomplishing that that goal.

National News

August 24/07
No medals for Morgan and Radoman

Montreal, August 18, 2007 (Sportcom) – Canadian judokas William Morgan of Parry Sound, Ont., and Alexander Radoman of Oakville, Ont., struggled this weekend at the Para Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro.

In the men’s 100 kilos, Morgan won one of his four bouts. He defeated Hector Espinoza of Venezuela and lost to Juan Bermudez of Cuba and Myles Porter of the U.S. He withdrew from his match against Antonio Silva of Brazil.

"I had only fought the American and Brazilian in the past," said Morgan, 32. "The Cuban was runner-up at the world championships two weeks ago and I knew he would be tough. I did well against him and had some opportunities to score. The Venezuelan was new to the circuit and I beat him by ippon. But in that bout and old knee injury reappeared and I was forced to pull out from my match against the Brazilian. The match wouldn’t have affected my final standing anyway. I preferred to focus on my bout against the American for third place but it didn’t go as well as expected."

Morgan was seventh at the worlds in Sao Paulo. "I had a tough draw and fought the top seeds early. I was expecting a better result because I was third at last year’s worlds. I’ve probably lost some spots in the world rankings which is disappointing."

On Friday, Radoman, 18, was seventh and last in men’s 81 kilos losing both his bouts. He fell to Harley Arruda of Brazil in the first round and then to Isao Alonso of Cuba in the repechage.

"I would have liked too have won a bout, but I faced tough opponents and my lack of experience showed," said Radoman, who took up the sport a year-and-a-half ago.