JUDO: A number of Australian judokas have edged closer to Rio 2016 qualification following strong results at the Oceania Judo Championships at the AIS Combat Centre.

In total, 48 male and female competitors across nine Oceania nations fought out for maximum IJF World Ranking points, with the Australian judokas taking all 7 gold medals in the men's weight category and 3 in the female to go on and top the overall medal tally.

For qualification to Rio 2016, the first 22 male and 14 female athletes ranked on the IJF World Ranking List of 30 May 2016 will directly qualify. While the majority of Aussie athletes went into the tournament outside of the direct qualification zone, the 400 ranking points achieved for winning each category has now significantly improved a number of fighter's chances of booking their tickets to Rio. 

In the men's category, Josh Katz was too strong for French Polynesian Yvan Shan in the under 60kg elevating him to no.19 in the world after his win. Katz's brother Nathan followed suit, going unbeaten in the under 66kg category defeating New Caledonian, David Mai in the gold medal match to end up ranked no.17. In the hotly contested under 73kg category,

Aussie Jake Benstead prevailed over Gaston Lafon from French Polynesia to do himself no harm getting to Rio, sitting comfortably as the no.14 following his gold medal bout.

Eoin Coughlan did enough in under 80kg with a win against Fijian Josateki Naulu to elevate in the top 22 . In an all Australian affair under 90kg final, Sebastian Tomesi upset Diego Baretto to give himself a chance to fight in Rio.

Canberra local and crowd favourite, Duke Dider was dominant in both of his fights to take out the under 100kg quite convincingly, beating New Zealander Jason Koster and Fijian Tevita Takayawa to currently place himself to no.22 in the world. Australia's only 2012 Olympian competing, Jake Andrewarth,a was upstaged in his first round bout and missed out on taking out the over 100kg category, with Australian Nicolas Bernard taking out gold against French Polynesian Jeremy Picard.

The women's category saw Australia's best Rio 2016 hopeful Katharina Haecker outdid her Australian training partner Maeve Coughlan in the under 63kg, to be placed no.10 in the world, whilst Miranda Giambella found herself inside the top 14 following her defeat of fellow Australian Melanie Wallis in the under 78kg final.

In the under 48kg, the final was contested by Chloe Rayner and New Zealander Emma Rouse, with Rayner winning in Golden Point and placing herself as the best placed Oceania athlete in her weight category heading towards Rio 2016 selection.

In the under 52kg, Australia's Hannah Trotter and Tinka Easton were both ousted by New Zealand's Justine Bishop dashing their Olympic dreams.

Under 70kg Aoife Coughlan was successful in all her bouts to take out gold, but will need to rely on strong results in the final tournaments to secure a ticket to Rio2016.

The Australian team will now turn its focus on a high performance camp at the AIS over the next few days, before they begin preparations on the remaining Olympic qualification tournaments in Baku, Azerbaijan and Almaty, Kazakhstan in May.

For detail results see below.

http://www.ippon.org/oju_sen2016.php

Daniel Josifovski
AIS