Cork City Judo Club thriving after successes at All-Ireland and Munster level

CORK City Judo Club have come a long way since the COVID-19 pandemic put the future of many sporting clubs in jeopardy.

Left with a small group of members, the group of volunteers running the club worked their way back to life, and as highlighted by committee member Una Cotter – they’re now at their highest number of active members with 225 people involved.

“We put an awful lot of time back into building up the club. We have put in so much time over the last two years,” Una begins. “So, it's great because like we're very family orientated, we have lots of families, parents, and siblings. It's an all-inclusive club and there's a great atmosphere there.

“Last year, we started competing, and we have a small competitive team. Eleven of us went to the All-Irelands Saturday [December 9], and then just before that we would have hosted the Munster Open.

“We won the Club Challenge last year, a national competition. It meant that we won the most medals out of the Munster Judo clubs.” Their success at the Club Challenge gave Cork City Judo Club the opportunity to host the Munster Open, and it was a huge success for the club.

We weren't really expecting that many to come. There was nearly 200 Judokas on the mat, and it was fantastic. I think there were around 23 clubs that came, so that in itself is a sign that the club's reputation is growing.

“This particular competition was point-scoring, so for people who were higher belts, they could come and earn points towards their black belts or other higher-ranking belts.

Now shared chair of the Munster Judo Council, Cotter credits the hard work of their coaches for Cork City Judo Club’s success in both the Munster Open that they hosted, as well as the All-Ireland competition.

“We had 33 entries [in the Muster open] and we won 10 gold, nine silver and 10 bronze medals.

“That’s down to the coaches,” Una explains. “We've six or seven coaches and it's great because they all have different backgrounds. They all come from different countries, and they all have different approaches to training.

“It was great that we that we had the opportunity then to host that, and then we had the All-Irelands last Saturday, and we had 11 judokas went into that. We had four golds, so that was huge.

“We have four all Ireland champions in their weight categories in the club, which is fantastic for a club that isn't massive. We won three silver and one bronze there as well.

“That kind of opens a different pathway then for the people who medalled, because they can partake in the national squad as well then.” Associated with Sport Ireland and the Irish Judo Association, Cork City Judo Club is a progressive one that affords plenty of opportunities to women in sport – with just over half their members female.

“Currently, we have a campaign going on for the last year and a half, in that we support women progressing to coaching, to refereeing or to table refereeing,” Una explains.

“At the moment it's actually the highest number of females that we’ve ever had in the club.” The club runs training sessions for anyone from the age of six up, with adult classes held in Coláiste Chríost Rí twice weekly.

Should you be interested in going along and trying a new sport, the club can be found on Instagram @corkcityjudoclub and on Facebook @Cork City Judo Club.