Rick Kenney, 7th Dan, Vice President of JudoScotland has recently been elected as Executive President of the Commonwealth Judo Association and is keen to work for judo being made a permanent sport in the Commonwealth Games. Rick was a member of the CJA Executive from 1990 and was elected as Senior Vice President in 1998. He attended Commonwealth Judo Championships in this position all over the world, including Mauritius; Malta; Canada: Singapore and New Zealand. He was Chairman of the Organising Committees when Commonwealth Championships were held in Scotland in 1998 and 1986.

He was previously Chairman of JudoScotland for 7 years and Vice Chair of the British Judo Association for 5 years along with serving 2 terms as Vice Chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland.

The role of CJA Executive President is a demanding one with some 73 Commonwealth countries having involvement in the sport of judo at all levels from recreational to international representation. Judo has been one of Scotland’s most successful Commonwealth sports with gold medals won in Auckland in 1990 where Rick was the team coach and then in Manchester in 2002 where Graham Randall won gold.

Judo was a demonstration sport in Edinburgh at the 1986 Games, when Rick was also the team coach, and due to its success, the sport was then included in the following Games.

Rick said, “I look forward to developing judo across the Commonwealth over the next few years and am sure that the Glasgow Commonwealth Games will showcase our sport across the world. Scotland has a long tradition in judo at Commonwealth level stretching back to 1986 and I see a bright future for judo.”