Eaglehawk siblings Caine and Shayanne Stuart have confirmed their reputations among Australia’s top judokas.
The pair contested the Judo Australia national championships at Carrara on June 10-11 and both returned with medals.
Caine won double gold in the 55kg under-21 and 50kg under-18 cadet men’s, while Shayanne snared bronze in the senior 57kg women’s.
His dual success continued an amazing 12 months for Caine, who earlier this year competed in the Cadet European Judo Cup in Russia and Germany.
The 18-year-old last year won gold at Oceania Continental Judo Championships in Tonga and competed with success at the World Judo Championships in Chile.
While his decision to contest the nationals was pretty much guaranteed, that was not always the case for older sister Shayanne.
The former nationally number one ranked 52kg women’s judoka has competed only sporadically since the birth of her son 18 months ago.
Shayanne described her decision to compete as ‘random’, but was happy to emerge with wins in four of her five bouts.
“As strange as it sounds when talking about our nationals, I lost to a Japanese girl (Ririko Noda),” she said.
“If you are living or studying in Australia for three months, you can compete in the nationals.
“She was a very good competitor.”
Shayanne, whose campaign to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics was undone by an unfortunate elbow injury, made a winning return to the sport at last year’s Melbourne International Open, just eight months after giving birth.
She followed up with two wins from three bouts at the state championships, and second placings at this year’s Melbourne and Queensland international opens and has since regained her number one ranking.
The Stuarts train most Wednesday and Thursdays alongside their father Stephen at the Preston-Eltham Judo Club in Melbourne and locally at the Bendigo Judo Academy in Eaglehawk.
Kieran Iles – Bendigo Advertiser