The Nymburk EJU Olympic Training Camp (OTC) is a well occupied training camp by many champions on a yearly basis. The training camp itself has been running since the 80s and in 2012, officially became an OTC and with that part of the EJU calendar. This year, well, during past week in fact, over 700 judoka across 44 countries from 4 continents were bettering one another twice a day.
Given we are in the Olympic year, it is important for both, the organisers as well as the teams to ensure a top-quality camp is on offer. However, Paris will soon arrive and be over in a blink of an eye. Therefore, this camp begins to serve the next generation too. Having this opportunity on your doorstep as a young judoka is gold and the local organisers ensured to seize the moment.
The President of the National Judo Federation of Czechia, Mr Pavel VOLEK summarised his experience;
I am proud that we were able to organize this event, although it was not an easy job. But we have managed to do it and I feel happy to hear “Thank you for an excellent camp” from the coaches.
It is a great opportunity for our young judoka to train with the best athletes. We invited our juniors and the best female cadets to take part in the camp. Although it is very hard, it is also a fantastic experience for them.
One of our promising cadet who is 16-year-old and competes in the -57kg category told me during the camp that she admired Marica Perisic. I then encouraged her to ask Perisic to have a randori with her. Eventually our youngster succeeded and told me later how happy she was to have that chance.
My personal highlight was the randori between Teddy Riner and Lukas Krpalek. A clash of judo giants live. All in all, we thank and appreciate everyone’s effort in coming here.
Some of the youngsters on the mat past week will become the ‘olds’ as part of the LA2028 crew. For now, let’s stay focused on the city of love, Paris. With that, the next opportunity to gather for more quality sparring will be the Tata EJU OTC from 8-13 April 2024.
Author: Szandra Szogedi