Home
Dutch judo is in turmoil after its Elite Judo Sports Director was sacked:
http://www.jbn.nl/nieuws/DU16589_Opvolging+directeur+topsport.aspx
http://www.jbn.nl/nieuws/DU16559_Sonnemans+weg+als+directeur+topsport+judobond.aspx
http://www.nu.nl/sport/3868678/ben-sonnemans-weg-als-technisch-directeur-judobond.html
http://nos.nl/artikel/694368-judobond-stuurt-sonnemans-weg.html
The Elite Judo Sports Director had been in the position only since the end of 2012 following selection procedures that raised eye brows. In the end really, despite many superbly qualified international candidates, the Dutch Judo Federation had decided to simply retain a student of the former Elite Sports Judo Director for the job in spite of considerably less qualifications and experience than many of the candidate, which raised concerns of nepotism. As so many times before and in so many other federations the same recipe for failure was followed. Someone was selected whose only achievement was that he too won some medals (1997 he had won the European Championships in the half-heavies, and won two other bronze European medals).
Judo Federations for some reason do not seem to get it, and hence he tenure turned out to be nothing short of a disaster. It was characterized by a lack of communication and total alienation concerning the personal coaches of the athletes.
The situation now is even worse, because now some people including some athletes and some coaches are disappointed whereas a majority is a relieved, the overall outcome being a collision of views and opinions. In the end the Dutch Judo Federation itself is responsible for selecting a candidate who polarized later than unified:
http://fightstartv.com/news/guillaume-elmont-niet-blij-met-ontslag-ben-sonnemans
To make things, even worse, the former Elite Sports Judo Director escalated the matter by publicly criticizing his own student who had succeeded him in the position.
The result is that we now have another full-fledged judo soap !!
(sorry all news reports only available in the Dutch language, please use Google translate)
http://www.jbn.nl/nieuws/DU16589_Opvolging+directeur+topsport.aspx
http://www.jbn.nl/nieuws/DU16559_Sonnemans+weg+als+directeur+topsport+judobond.aspx
http://www.nu.nl/sport/3868678/ben-sonnemans-weg-als-technisch-directeur-judobond.html
http://nos.nl/artikel/694368-judobond-stuurt-sonnemans-weg.html
The Elite Judo Sports Director had been in the position only since the end of 2012 following selection procedures that raised eye brows. In the end really, despite many superbly qualified international candidates, the Dutch Judo Federation had decided to simply retain a student of the former Elite Sports Judo Director for the job in spite of considerably less qualifications and experience than many of the candidate, which raised concerns of nepotism. As so many times before and in so many other federations the same recipe for failure was followed. Someone was selected whose only achievement was that he too won some medals (1997 he had won the European Championships in the half-heavies, and won two other bronze European medals).
Judo Federations for some reason do not seem to get it, and hence he tenure turned out to be nothing short of a disaster. It was characterized by a lack of communication and total alienation concerning the personal coaches of the athletes.
The situation now is even worse, because now some people including some athletes and some coaches are disappointed whereas a majority is a relieved, the overall outcome being a collision of views and opinions. In the end the Dutch Judo Federation itself is responsible for selecting a candidate who polarized later than unified:
http://fightstartv.com/news/guillaume-elmont-niet-blij-met-ontslag-ben-sonnemans
To make things, even worse, the former Elite Sports Judo Director escalated the matter by publicly criticizing his own student who had succeeded him in the position.
The result is that we now have another full-fledged judo soap !!
(sorry all news reports only available in the Dutch language, please use Google translate)
