08/06/2026
It’s been a huge weekend for our team on the Gold Coast at the Australian National Championships. Every athlete returned home with a national medal.
Roman Aizikov competed in the Cadets -73kg division. At his first National Championships, he finished with a bronze medal in a pool of 15 competitors, winning 3 of his 4 matches. Not bad at all considering he has only been doing judo for two and a half years.
Angela Chan competed across three divisions: Veterans, Senior Women, and Kyu Grades. She walked away with gold in the Veterans division and bronze in the Kyu Grades. Both of her losses were razor-close contests that could easily have gone the other way.
Cameron Tomuli made his National Championships debut in the U13 Boys -66kg division. After suffering a first-round loss, he bounced back strongly to score a clean ippon and secure the bronze medal.
Tevita Takayawa competed in the Senior Men +100kg division. He did what he does best by chasing big throws and spectacular ippons. After his opening contest, he fought his way back through his next two matches to claim bronze.
Stephen Omodunbi competed in both the Senior Men -90kg and Senior Male Kyu Grades -90kg divisions. On Saturday, he won his opening match before coming up against Australia's Commonwealth Games representative in the next round. After some great exchanges, he eventually went down by ippon after just 1 minute and 30 seconds and was unfortunately knocked out of the draw.
Hugh McCormack also competed in both the Senior Men -90kg and Senior Male Kyu Grades -90kg divisions. He started with a win and ultimately finished 7th in the highly competitive category.
The highlight of the weekend came on Sunday when Hugh and Stephen met in the final of the Senior Male Kyu Grades -90kg division after fighting their way through their respective brackets. While teammates don't always enjoy facing one another, they have continually pushed each other to improve over the years, and the result showed.
