Judo Australia (JA) has been closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation both in Australia and around the world. Given the incredible fluidity of the current landscape, JA continues to take advice from credible sources before making any decisions. Following recent government announcements, which limit the number of people in mass gatherings indoors to less than 100 people, and statements that measures being implemented should be able to be sustained for longer than six (6) months. JA has made the difficult decision to postpone indefinitely the 2020 Judo Australia National Championships, scheduled to have been held at the Gold Coast between 5 - 8 June 2020. We are working with our key stakeholders to consider alternate dates for the second half of 2020, should the COVID-19 situation subside.
Further to mass gathering limitations, in the last 48 hours, some significant decisions have been made across the world and in Australia, which have included imposing strict travel and quarantine restrictions making it more difficult for travel even within Australia.
JA Chair Kate Corkery said “these are challenging decisions in challenging times. Our National Championships have been an annual event since the 1950’s and is a symbolic and important event for our community. We acknowledge that this is disappointing news for athletes and coaches within our community who have been focussed on their training and preparation for the past 9 months, however with the information as it is presented today we feel we have no other choice.
Within the realms of our control, JA remains committed to finding opportunities to reignite our event schedule when circumstances change. We are working with relevant stakeholders and will continue to do so in the best interests of our athletes and our sport.” Corkery said
JA Medical Officer, Dr John Azoury also supports this decision, stating that “complying with advice being provided by the medical profession with respect of COVID-19 will benefit all within our judo community and the Australian community at large”.
We thank all within our community for following the advice being issued by JA and your state/territory association, the World Health Organisation, government health authorities and the AIS to implement the highest possible hygiene and preventative measures when individuals are participating in our sport. We know that if we focus on the community and those we love at the moment we will be better positioned to strengthen quickly when the situation changes.
