Morgan Endicott-Davies
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Morgan Endicott-Davies (born 31 January 1974) is a multiple-time Australian judo champion and international medallist in judo. He is widely known for his uchi mata, seoi nage, and juji gatame techniques. He has also competed successfully at the international level in amateur sumo.
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[edit] Early years
Endicott-Davies' mother is Japanese (from Kyoto) and his father, Ivor Endicott-Davies, came from the small town of Balclutha in New Zealand's South Island. His father received his 6th dan in judo in 2007.
In 1993—at the age of 19—Endicott-Davies travelled from Australia to Japan with his family and stayed there for one year. Soon after arriving in Japan, he took up judo, learning at Waseda University Judo Club. He received his black belt after twelve months. During his time in Japan, he also learned Japanese.
[edit] Career highlights
In 1995, a year after returning to Australia, he won a bronze medal at the Australian national titles.
After cross-training with an All-Japan amateur sumo champion for three years, Endicott-Davies competed at the Sumo World Championships in 1997, winning a bronze medal in the under 85kg division.[1]
His first international judo competition followed in in 1998 at the Oceania championships, where he won a bronze medal in the under 81kg division and a silver in the open weight division.
He was a reserve for the Sydney Olympics judo team in 2000.
He won gold at the 2001 National titles, and went on to compete in the Pacific Rim Championships, British Open, Kano Cup (World Level) and then the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, where he placed in the top four.
After ten years of a gruelling training regime in Australia, Japan, Korea, England and Germany, he won the Oceania championships in 2003, and was selected for the 2004 Australian Olympic judo team. He competed in Athens, finishing ninth. He also represented Australia at the 2005 World Judo Championships in Cairo, where he was unplaced.
[edit] Current
He is currently an elite member of the JFA (Judo Federation of Australia)'s High Performance Squad, and is aiming to represent Australia at the Olympics for a second time, in 2008 in Beijing.
Along with other senior New South Wales black belt instructors, he set up the Black Belt Register (BBR) Judo Academy, a volunteer organisation which has as its objective to provide strong technical instruction to all members in that state.
Morgan and his father founded the Budokan Judo Club in Castle Hill in Sydney. He is currently the head instructor of Zenbu Judo Club, a club he founded in July 2005. The club trains at two dojos: one situated in Sydney Olympic Park, the other at Terrey Hills, also in Sydney. Morgan is my Instructor at Zenbu judo
[edit] Other
Endicott-Davies received a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Management from the University of Western Sydney in 1998.[1][2]
[edit] Sources
- Factfile Morgan Endicott-Davies (judoinside.com)
- Memoirs of... an Athens judo athlete - jStyle magazine, issue #2. 2007.
- Profile of Morgan Endicott-Davies (zenbu.com.au)
[edit] References
- ^ a b Olympic first-timer fulfils a family dream Graduate Life (University of Western Sydney alumni magazine). Spring 2004.
- ^ Profile of Morgan Endicott-Davies (gsaib.com.au)
[edit] External links
- Zenbu web site
- Uchi mata - Morgan Endicott-Davies defeats Graeme Spinks in the open weight final of the NZ National Titles in 2003 (10s video)
- Judo Explosive Moves Zenbu Promo (3m32s video)