Each year, at the Elite National Championships, Judo Canada awarded the club with the highest ranking in the U18 division, a banner, and a bursary during an official ceremony. All the clubs that participated in this division were eligible.

As you all know, the global covid-19 pandemic has unfortunately resulted in the cancellation and postponement of the 2021 and 2022 Elite National Championships. Despite the absence of this event at the beginning of the season for the last two years, qualifying events were finally held in 2021, namely the Quebec Open and the Pacific International. It is for these reasons that we are happy and proud to announce that this year, Judo Canada will recognize the best U18 High Performance clubs by offering them a global grant of $5000.

The procedure for selecting the recipients in the U18 club rankings was naturally different this year due to the situation and our calculations are based on the 2020 elite ranking and the 2022 selection.

We warmly congratulate the recipient clubs, and we are convinced that the future will bring many nice surprises.

This initiative came as a pleasant surprise to all the coach recipients  and especially to Lethbridge Judo Club head coach Russ Gallant who mentioned that this bursary will be used to fund travel expenses incurred by his athletes. He added, “The club is extremely pleased to be able to offer classes again this season without major interruptions. We are also delighted to see the majority of our competitive judokas returning to compete in the next competition. A big thank you to the athletes and their families for showing great patience and maturity during the many changes that have occurred over the past two years.”

The Regional Training Centre coaching team consists of the program leader Ewan Beaton assisted by Russ Gallant, Trevor McAlpine, and Tim Takahashi.