Australia’s top ranked Cadet judo players – aged 15 to 17 – competed in Sofia, Bulgaria last week as part of the Cadet World Championships. Our small team of seven were among 550 judoka from 71 nations in what is surely a good predictor of the field lining up for future Olympic Games, including Brisbane 2032.
Maria Pekli, Judo Australia’s General Manager of Performance & Pathways, joined the Australian team in Sofia to assist National Cadet Coach Ivica Pavlinic. Developing our cadets to be able to compete at the top level is a key objective for our Pathways program, she explained.
“Generally, it takes eight to ten years of training and competing at high level before we see senior level success. Investing in this age group builds the foundations for our future Olympians.”
While no medals were forthcoming, four out of the seven athletes (Angus Cormack , Rika Hirose, Akos Kelly and Hannah McHenry) finished inside the top 16 in Sofia.
“They’ve still got a long way to go, but this a good start, and our best result since 2022,” Maria said.
Ivica explained that this was a younger Cadet team with many outweighed in age and experience.
“Athletes are rapidly developing at this age and in most divisions, the top seven are all final year cadets. Yet we had some very close matches and this shows our young athletes are on the right path,” Ivica pointed out.
“Rika, Hannah and Akos will all still be cadets next year and can come back and improve on their results in 2026,” he said.
With no Australians contesting divisions in the first day of the championships, the team debut came on Day 2 with two athletes contesting the under 60 kg cadet men.
Max Pogreb from Taketani Judo Academy in Victoria had a tough fight against Cyprus’ Afxentis Afxentiou in the first round. After behind by yuko early in the match, Max had to chase and open up more resulting in being more open to getting caught several more times. He fought hard, however, before being overcome by Afxentiou, who himself lost in the next round against eventual bronze medalist, Dilshod Karimov of Uzbekistan.
Victoria’s Max Pogreb battles Cyprus’ Afxentiou in their Round of 61 match.
Crosby Peake from Budokan in Sydney, started well against Lithuania’s Natas Aleksejunas with two good exchanges. He then received a false attack shido for a poor attempt at tomoe nage. The following exchange, he attacked in newaza and gave up his back from a dominant position in newaza, resulting in getting caught with sankaku jime/sankaku gatame.
New South Wales judoka Crosby Peake in action against Lithuania’s Aleksejunas.
In the Under 66kg category, Angus Cormack from Taketani Judo Academy won his first fight against Narmatbek Abdaimov of Kyrgyzstan. After scoring twice with morote seoi-nage, Angus was countered shortly after for wazari with sumi gaeshi after a poor ippon seoi-nage attack.
In the dying seconds of the contest, Angus capitalised on a poorly timed sutemi-waza attempt from Abdaimov to secure an osae-komi for ippon.
“Angus showed great awareness while under pressure,” Maria commented. “This is the sort of thing that only good competition experience can teach, and its exactly why we invest in making sure our cadets travel and compete as much as possible.”
Melbourne’s Angus Cormack took victory in his first round fight against Kyrgyzstan’s Abdaimov before succumbing to Turkey’s Onay in the round of 32.
In his next fight, Angus was up against Numan Onay of Türkiye. The first part of the fight was close and Angus put several good attacks in but got caught with kata guruma for wazari in the second minute. In the final minute, Angus got caught with uranage after attempting a left tsuri goshi. The throw was an ippon. Onay finished seventh place on the day – an impressive result at a world championships.
In the Cadet Women Under 48kg, Australia was represented by Rika Hirose from Queensland’s Ohori Judo Club. Rika won her first fight against Israel’s Ella Bar Lev. Despite being hampered by a stomachache, she dominated the Israeli scoring yuko with tsuri-komi goshi. She managed the rest of the fight well and finished on top despite taking two shidos to one.
Advancing to her round of 16 fight, she took on France’s Nourane Moussati. Rika dominated the early part of the fight with good aggression and a high attack rate. As the fight went on, Moussati found her way back into the gripping and begun to hold her own.
Brisbane judoka Rika Hirose battles France’s Moussati in nail-biting Round of 32 match. Moussati go on to win bronze in this division.
In the last minute, Rika attacked with uchimata without enough set up or kuzushi, enabling the French fighter to counter her with a uchimata sukashi, scoring yuko with less than a minute to go. Unfortunately, Rika was not able to get the score back, and Moussati went on to finish with a Cadet World Championships bronze medal.
On Day 3, two young judo athletes stepped onto the tatami to represent Australia – Lily Tai Tin from Victoria’s Taketani Judo Academy in the Cadet Women under 63 kg, and Akos Kelly from Resilience Training Centre in the Cadet Men Under 81kg division.
Lily had a tough draw against the world number six, Nana Gulbiani of Georgia. After holding her own for the first exchange, where both athletes received a shido, Lily allowed Gulbiani to get a belt grip where she performed a direction change o-uchi gari scoring a wazari and then proceeded to get a second wazari with osaekomi. A good learning experience for Lily on the biggest global stage for young judo athletes, against a high-ranked opponent.
Melbourne’s Lily Tai Tin succumbs to highly-ranked Georgian Nana Gulbiani, a valuable experience on the world stage.
Akos won his first fight against Bulgaria’s Teodor Katsarski in front of a hostile Bulgarian crowd. He controlled the grips well and scored wazari with a well-executed tai otoshi. From there he managed the contest well until the end.
Moving to the round of 16, he fought Edoardo Michele Russo of Italy. After taking two early shidos, Akos threw osoto gari gaeshi for ippon. Unfortunately the ippon was overruled by the head referee table, downgrading the score to wazari. Akos was then caught for yuko with osoto makekomi and then caught with harai goshi/osoto makekomi for ippon. Russo fought through the division to eventually come in fifth.
Victoria’s Akos Kelly was hopeful of ippon against Italy’s Edoardo Russo but the score was overruled and Russo later threw for ippon to win the match.
On Day 4 of the Cadet World Championships, Victoria’s Hannah McHenry would contest the Cadet Women Under 70kg division. Hannah, from Resilience Training Centre, started her day against Portugal’s Joana Moreira. She fought a good tactical fight and ended up going into golden score keeping the pressure on the Portuguese and ahead on shidos. She finished the fight well scoring ippon with koshi jime.
In her second fight, she took on Poland’s Diana Benkova. Hannah fought well and was up on shidos deep into golden score. She attacked with a drop seoi nage which was a bit too loose and she got countered with sumi gaeshi for wazari. It was unfortunate as Benkova was nearing a third shido. Benkova finished the Championship in bronze for this division.
Melbourne-based Hannah McHenry dominates Portugal’s Joana Moreira in their first round of the U70kg at the Cadet World Championships.
Maria Pekli is confident that the strategy of providing early exposure for our young athletes to Asian and European Cup competitions and international training camps has contributed to coming closer in matches against high level opposition.
“Ideally, we need our athletes to have a strong daily training environment in Australia and participate in eleven to twelve events and have between 35 and 45 competitive fights per year to enable them to progress,” she explained.
“Learning to compete under pressure is an essential skill as they progress through the pathway. Although we did not get a top seven finish, there were a lot of positives to take out of this event as we build towards Brisbane 2032.”
“Judo Australia would like to thank the parents and home coaches for supporting our program and the athletes. A big thank you goes to the training partners in Australia also who helped to prepare the cadet team for the World Championships.”
Ivica, alongside his role as the National Cadet Coach, is one of two Regional Development Coaches working with clubs and coaches around the country to prepare talented young athletes for the first step on their high performance journey – selection to the Cadet Development Squad.
“There’s a lot of work to be done once you make the Squad, there are benchmarks that need to be met and a standard we are looking for before we consider you ready to compete. The opportunities are carefully chosen – you can’t expect to make it to Cadet Worlds without consistent performances in Asia and Europe first. It’s big step up and we work hard to help the our athletes be ready,” Ivica explained. Next stop for the wider Cadet Development Squad will be the Cadet European Cups in Slovenia and Hungary in late October.
