Three hundred and sixty people from 14 clubs across Canada are participating in the Winnipeg national judo tournament at the Dakota Community Center in the city’s south, as organizers note an increase in the number of participants in the sport.
Daniel Ekosky won gold in the senior under 80 kg category on Saturday, and on Sunday he faced an Olympic athlete. This Franco-Manitoban judoka from Selkirk has been practicing this sport since the age of 5.
I have two brothers and a sister who do judo, I am the youngest. My whole family does it so I figured I’d do it too. It keeps me in good shape so I like it
he said.
Daniel Ekosky is part of the Manitoba team and has been participating in this interprovincial tournament for 10 years.
We are a team of around thirty or forty judokas. Since I started, there are more and more fighters in this tournament, but also in the others.
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“I don’t know how many gold medals I’ve won anymore, but I’m going to continue and maybe go to the Olympic Games, I hope,” says Daniel Ekosky.
Photo: - / Antoine Brière
Bigger and bigger competitions
Judo Manitoba President and Winnipeg National Judo Tournament Director Milton Good is delighted with the success of this year’s competition.
This is our biggest competition. The numbers are higher than last year. It’s the biggest tournament in Manitoba
he says.
Ils [les participants] come from all over Canada and they must earn enough points to go to the national competition [à un niveau supérieur] a may
ajoute Milton Good.
And according to him, judo competitions have changed over time.
When I was younger, there weren’t even weight classes. Today it is safer, but also essential if we look at the larger number of participants. Across Canada, the numbers are increasing, this is what we are seeing at Judo Canada.
According to Milton Good, the very nature of judo explains these figures.
People love combat sports. Judo is an accessible, understandable sport, but also very safe with few injuries and strong values. That’s why, I think
he assures.
Luc Briand, member of the national judo refereeing committee since 2014, is responsible for evaluating the refereeing of competitions. He says that judo is experiencing some growth by observing tournaments.
Since COVID, we have observed that there are too many registrations compared to the combat surfaces available in tournaments. So we have to find larger plots of land. Based on this, we can say that there is an increase in judo athletes
he explains.
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Luc Briand, member of the national judo arbitration committee, assures that the Winnipeg national judo tournament has only existed for three years, and that we can expect an exponential increase in the number of its participants.
Photo: - / Antoine Brière
For him, the public representation of judo helps to democratize the discipline.
It depends on the success of our elite athletes. At the beginning of the 2000s, we had Nicolas Gill who increased the judo licenses in Canada, we then had a bronze medal from Antoine Valois-Fortier in 2012 and there we have just had our first gold medal with Christa Deguchi at the Paris Olympics. All this helps the development of judo in the country.
The judokas who shone during the national judo tournament in Winnipeg will have to shine during the Canadian national competition in May to hope to join the Canadian national judo team.
