There must be something in the water at the Resilience Training Centre in Footscray. Almost half the Australian contingent in judo for next month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow come from the western suburbs centre.
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“We’re very happy and hope it continues [with] similar numbers for the 2016 Olympics,” says Daniel Kelly, one of the centre’s owners and coaches.
“We have a lot of experience and create a good training environment, so that’s probably why we’re doing very well.”
Hannah Trotter, a 22-year-old from Broadmeadows, will make her Commonwealth Games debut in the 52kg division. She has already tasted success, winning gold at last year’s Oceania Championships.
Trotter draws motivation from training with other successful athletes at the Resilience centre.
“I think everyone’s just got a really good mentality here and works really hard. We’ve all got a common goal and everyone’s in it together.”
Australia is sending a team of 13 judo competitors to the Games – seven men and six women.
Other competitors from Kelly’s training centre are Katharina Haecker (63kg) and Sara Collins (70kg), while Tom Pappas (60kg), Ivo Dos Santos (66kg), Mark Anthony (90kg) and Jake Andrewartha (+100kg) will compete in the men's events.
Kelly says the best medal chances are from the women's team, naming Collins and Trotter as bright stars of the future. Collins is making a comeback from recent knee surgery, which has hampered her preparation, but Kelly says she could still make the podium.
Trotter says Scotland, Wales and England are Australia’s biggest competitors in the sport, which originated in Japan.
Trotter took up judo at seven and quickly started building a reputation as a fierce competitor, despite her tender age.
“It’s just really, really challenging, mentally and physically,” she says of her sport. “It’s hard because there’s so many variables about what the other person is going to do.”
Judo has a limited history with the Games. It was first on the program at the 1990 Games in Auckland and didn’t appear again until 2002 in Manchester. In those two Australia won 16 medals in the sport, including three gold. It’s an optional sport, which means the host nation decides whether to include it. Judo is not scheduled for the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
Kelly says its inclusion this year is a “bonus” for the athletes.
“You can’t plan for it because it’s spasmodic. We run by Olympic schedules and if there’s something in between, then we’re lucky,” he says.
But having the experience of taking part in a high-profile, multi-sport event that hundreds of millions of people globally will watch is good experience for 2014, Kelly says.
“It’s very, important. It gives them insight and a foot in the door. It really sets them up well in terms of experience and what to expect – dealing with the dining hall, getting into a routine, going to official functions they have to go to and it makes it a little less of a bigger deal if they qualify for Rio,” he says.
The sport's uncertain future at Commonwealth Games level doesn’t bother Trotter. She has her eyes focused on the 2016 Olympics Games.
“This is the first milestone,” she says.
