Katalin Fridrich

The 2014 Malta Judo Federation international calendar came to an end earlier this month with a refereeing update conducted by Katalin Fridrich.

Fridrich is a former member of the Hungarian national team and is now one of the top 50 referees within the International Judo Federation fold.

In her career, she has been involved in all classes of the European Championships, Grand Prix and Grand Slam.

As part of the preparation for the 2015 GSSE and other international events, the Malta Judo Federation invited Fridrich to attend a training camp held here and give her advice to national team members, de-pending on style and tactics.

Coaches Alex Bezzina and Lamberto Raffi led the training sessions.

During her stay, Fridrich also gave a talk during a seminar for referees, going through all the recent updates in this particular sector on the international scene.

Meanwhile, the Maltese junior team competed in an international tournament in Lodi last month where 84 teams contested the cadets, juniors and U-23 categories.

Jeremy Saywell underlined his progress by eliminating all his U-23 opponents in the -66kgs category by Ippon to win the gold medal.

Luke Montebello and Cheryl Kaye Cachia also figured in the U-23 competitions.

Montebello was third in the 90kgs and Cachia fifth in 57kgs.

The Maltese cadet team in Lodi added three bronze medals to the haul thanks to Cormack Spiteri, Alessio Muscat and Alice Battistino.

The squad also included Gabriel Debono, Joseph Muscat, Kurt Butters and Nicola Battistino.

The next important event for the Maltese will be the National Championships on January 18.