Worlds

I have definitely had a very interesting last couple of days. Put simply I have been sick since Sunday with a sore throat and flu symptoms so while we moved from tsukuba to Tokyo for the worlds I didn’t do any training whatsoever.

I attended the worlds on the first day for maybe 1 hour; I watched my team mate duke beat a strong fighter from Mali with a few pickups and eventually running the clock down winning by 1 waza ari and a yuko. I decided to go home as I wasn’t feeling the best. This was on Thursday. Duke ended up losing his next fight against the experienced Korean.

I have been dealing with terrible sleeping patterns this whole trip but on Thursday night Friday morning I was sore and aching and waking up like I wanted to vomit and my stomach was a really gross feeling. By the time morning came around I was a mess so our co team manager Hitoshi took me to Shinjuku hospital and the docs check me out.

Turns out my temp was 39.3 and I was suffering from Tonsillitis. I couldn’t believe it I was so sick and all I wanted to be was better, I didn’t even care about fighting worlds. I resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be fighting because how can u sauna 3kg while suffering tonsillitis. Anyway the doc put me on a drip and I slept on the bed for an hour or so...hitoshi kept me company...what a top bloke.

The doc subscribed me with some different meds to be taken at different times throughout the day etc and I pretty much slept all day Friday. I put a message on facebook quickly saying I wouldn’t be fighting worlds as I was so sick a saw later that I had a heap of people praying for me to recover and to be feeling better.
Saturday morning came around and my prayers (and every else’s) was answered because I was feeling fantastic and weighing 61.3kg, I couldn’t believe it. Awesome, I couldn’t believe that the day before I was on a drip and the next day I’m feeling awesome and in the sauna only losing a measly 1.3. Thank you god.

Competition Day
I had I think 75 in my division but I had a bye first round. I drew a young guy from Mozambique who I threw for a sumi gaeshi for waza ari and then transitioned into a hold down to win the fight within a minute.

Next I had Jokinnen from Finland. I last fought Jokinnen in 2006 at Kano cup and he threw me for a yuko with only 20 seconds left to win the match. Jokinnen is a left handed seoi nage fighter and is also a bit of a groundwork guru so I knew I didn’t want to go to the ground with him.

I haven’t watched the fight since I fought but I think the fight went for around three minutes with me trying to control inside lapel and enter for an uchimata/switch. I was in good position a few times but could capitalise on where I was. In the end I switched my front foot to, instead of being in line with his, to behind his line enabling him to enter for a sticky foot ko ouchi and I somehow just fell on my back for a soft ippon.

He ended up losing his next match to the world number 2 from Japan.

All in all for a guy who was sick as a dog the other day I did ok. In the next few days I will pick apart my fights and have a good look at what I was doing and I need to improve on. I have a fair idea already but I will sit down with coaches Tom and Steve hill and figure out a plan of attack for coming months.

Tomorrow is the Open (absolute) and we have 4 aussie men competing Duke, Priscus, Josh and Jake and Janelle in the Women. Should be a good day of entertainment for me in the stands. I have only been to Judo once this whole week due to being sick. My 2 favourite fighters (Canto and Guilhero-both from Brazil) drew each other in the semi finals, and I didn’t get to see them fight as I was in my bed feeling really sorry for myself.

For those who were praying for me to get better thank you so much.