An ex-Westbury resident has been selected to represent the UK in a world-wide competition that will pit the world’s top athletes with intellectual impairment against each other.
19-year-old Joshuha Hodkinson, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s five years ago, will attend the Virtus Global Games 2023 next month in Brisbane to represent the UK in judo – a sport he says he was inspired to take up after he lost an ‘uphill’ battle with his sister Chloe.
“I first started at Trowbridge Budokwai in 2012 as my dad encouraged me to start a sport as my sister Chloe and I fought on the nearby White Horse and she beat me up!”, he said.
“So, from a few weeks after that, I started judo and haven’t stopped. I have competed an uncountable number of times – some notable titles I have picked up include being a 2022 Virtus Oceanic Asia gold medallist in Australia, the Ben van der Eng, and the Adaptive World Judo Games champion three years in a row. It was cancelled in 2020/21 due to covid – so I won in 2022, 2019 and 2018.
“Judo allows me to forget whatever has happened in the day and allows me to clear my mind by focussing on doing judo. I enjoy learning new techniques and trying them when we do randori – sparring in judo.”
Joshuha attended both Westbury Junior School and Westbury Infants School before moving to Chorley in 2013.
He added, “I am very excited to compete for Great Britain officially for the second time and being able to have the opportunity to represent my country on an international scale. I would like to thank Peter Blood who is my trainer at SKK Judo Club letting us train with experienced judoka – people who do judo such as bronze medallist Paralympian Ben Quilter and others. I would like to continue to compete for Great Britain, in the Paris Paralympics in 2024 that I would like to work towards this.”
The Virtus Global Games features 1,000 of the world’s top athletes with intellectual impairment competing in athletics, basketball, swimming, table tennis, futsal, indoor and outdoor rowing, road cycling, taekwondo and tennis. As the World Championships for athletes with intellectual impairment the Virtus Global Games marks the highest level of achievement for high-performance athletes from around the world.
