Ablaze: Judo
46th National Inter-School Judo Competitions 2012
| Match Fixtures | ||||
| Event | Team | Individual | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Preliminary | Finals | Preliminary | Finals |
| Date | 28 March | 30 March | 2 April | 4 April |
| Time | 10am | 12pm | 10am | 12pm |
| Venue | Hougang Secondary | |||
Gary Chia, the captain of the CJC Judo team, has the following to say for the start of the team's season:
We will be facing up against giants with much more experience. It is the first competitive experience many of us will have, and perhaps fittingly, it also marks the end of our first year of Judo. We want to thank Mr Tong, Ms Soh and Mr Tan for their guidance and never ceasing care. They are our guardians inside the Dojo and close friends outside of it. We also want to thank the Council for their help in organising and coordinating our movements amidst their busy schedules. This journey has been filled with blood, pain, sweat, tears, and broken bones. As we make the final push for glory, we hope you, our friends, can rally behind us. With you fueling our flames, we'll set the arena ablaze. As our Ex-captain once said, "Victory belongs to those who dare to dream and make those dreams come true." Last year, we won 14 medals. This year, we won't settle for Silver, we will go for the Gold. CJC, it is an honour to fight for you!
The Ablaze team conducted an interview with members of the Judo team, and these are their responses:
Q: How are you feeling about the upcoming season? A: We are definitely looking forward to it and hoping that we can win some medals because we have been working hard as a team for the past 1 year. We hope to get what we deserve, after working so hard, who doesn’t want to win? Everyone is getting pumped up, getting into the competition mood. So, everyone is shifting the mentality from “happy-happy” to focusing on training nowadays, and hoping to get something out of it so that we can use it for the competition. I’d say that the atmosphere is more serious nowadays. I also think that although we’ll be going up against some giants during the competition, I feel that everybody in the team is not feeling afraid but rather, excited because we finally have the chance to prove ourselves and against the best of the competition, is where we will make our stand.
Q: What are your goals for this season? A: We are aiming for at least 15 medals, because we had 14 medals last year, of which 10 will be from team events and 5 from the individual events. I think just the physical aspect, just superficially aiming for a reward. More than that, I hope that as a team, we hope and aspire to be the embodiment of what CJ is. We want to become more resilient people, we want to grow as individuals to become more hardworking and of course, it is never easy to win in a competition so that kind of atmosphere just makes you become more of an honest person and to know yourself better, and I think that we will really take the lessons we learn in Judo far in the workplace.
Q: So what do you hope to gain as a team by the end of this season? A: We hope to be - because of the tough training that we’ve endured for the past year - we hope to be more rugged. I hope that we do not only support each other in terms of during training or only in Dojo. Because our ‘A’ Levels are coming so I hope that if anyone has any trouble with studies or anything, then we can help each other out, and not leave anyone in the lurch. At the end of season, I hope the whole team can gain a whole new experience in Judo. What I mean by this is, because most of us have not competed in ‘A’ Divs, and Judo is our first time, so after the end of the season, we can hopefully be more passionate about Judo and continue this sport as long as we can.
Q: What do you wish from the student body in terms of support? A: We would like people to come down to be physically present if possible. Take the time to come down to watch! We’re not expecting like other JCs where they have the day off to watch. But it would really help if you could be physically present, along with the rest of the student body and not just the student council. Other than the physical things and financial area, I hope that the student body can support us in spirit as well. Because during competition, it is not always about the physical. Sometimes when we get tired, it is the mental and the emotional that pushes us on. So, it really makes a difference to us if the student body can stand behind us and rally behind us and support us in spirit as well.
All the best in your competition, Judokas!CJC IGNITE! FLAME ON!
