Former Commonwealth Games Scotland Vice Chairman, Rick Kenney has been appointed as Executive President of the Commonwealth Judo Association. Rick, a judo 7th Dan, is a former wrestling and judo international with a number of GB international appearances. He was previously Chair of JudoScotland, Vice Chair of the British Judo Association and is currently Vice President of JudoScotland.

Rick, 60, has been involved in judo from an early age and was made a life member of JudoScotland in 2012.

In his new role, Rick is keen to press 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. Rick has attended Commonwealth Judo Championships all over the world and was Chairman of the Organising Committees when Scotland hosted the Commonwealth Championships in 1998 and 1986.

Rick has been involved with 5 Commonwealth Games, firstly as coach and latterly, as a General Team Manager. 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, and due to its success, the sport was then included in the following Games.

The Commonwealth Judo Championships now embrace all age groups – cadets; juniors; seniors and masters and plans are underway for special needs judo being added to future programmes.

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 the sport.”