TuksSport offers over 30 sports for students to participate in. This edition’s spotlight sport is judo, one of the exciting yet lesser known sports that TuksSport has to offer.
Judo is the use of quick movements and leverage to overpower your opponent and throw them down. UP’s judo club is affiliated with the Gauteng North Judo Association and in turn, this association is linked to Judo South Africa.
The club is open to all people; which includes members of the community and even those still in high school, such as Thomas Breytenbach. Breytenbach was only 17 years old when he won a gold medal at the Borsa Open Tournament in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019 – when was a student at TuksSport High. There have been many other successes at the judo club, and Michaela Whitebooi is one of these. Whitebooi is considered one of South Africa’s best judokas. In 2019 and 2020, she won the African Judo Championships, and in 2021 she represented South Africa at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Whitebooi made history here as she was the third South African female judoka to represent South Africa at the games and the first in 17 years. She was also Africa’s only female competitor in the 48 kg women’s judo event.
The most recent success for UP’s judo team was at the University Sports South Africa (USSA) event, where the TuksJudo team won the USSA Judo title. The UP judokas also won in the team events category. There were multiple standout performances from the team. Trevor Lang won 19 medals in total: 12 gold medals, four silver and three bronze. Another standout was Dewald Schultz and Katja Lang, who won two gold medals each. Schultz also took home the title of the best promising newcomer, while the title of best female went to Lang. Timothy Meuwzen won three gold medals and was named best male at the event.
TuksJudo won 11 more medals at the USSA judo event. Khanya Thamae won a gold medal, Marciano de Oliveira won one gold and two silver medals, and Morne Jacobs won one gold and two bronze medals and was also named the best male newcomer. Shawwal Bagaria won one gold and one silver medal and was also named best female newcomer, while Tegan Malherbe won one gold and one bronze. If you are interested in joining the club or training with the other judokas, including Michaela Whitebooi, their training sessions are on Mondays to Wednesdays at the Hillcrest Sports Campus from 15:30 to 16:30. The judo club also offers self-defence classes which, according to the UP website, are for ages three and older.
Image: up.ac.za , Images Facebook – TuksJudo
