Paralympics watch out, Jacque is on his way
Jacque Joubert, a visually impaired judoka, might be on his way to this year's Paralympics.
Jacque Joubert is on his way to becoming one of the first South Africans to qualify for the South African Judo Team and compete in the upcoming Paralympics.
Being one of six children, he decided to follow in his older brother and sister’s footsteps and also started doing judo. He did not allow his visual impairment to stop him, and 20 years later he is not only still at it, he is good at it.
His first coach was Hennie Pretorius from Pretoria, and after many years of training with him, he unfortunately had to move to a new coach when he started studying. That is how he started training with his current coach, Dirk Crafford.
Photos: Supplied.
In the first part of 2020 Jacque, 25, will be participating in four judo tournaments to try to qualify for the Paralympics in August.
If Jacque succeeds, he will be one of the first two South Africans ever to qualify to compete in Judo at the Paralympics. His teammate is Ndyebo Lamani from the Eastern Cape, who is also visually impaired.
Jacque and Ndyebo will be competing in tournaments in Germany, Tokyo, Birmingham and Baku from February to May this year and hopefully in the Paralympics after that.
Jacque is currently ranked among the top 20 judoka in the world, and if he retains his position after these four tournaments he will qualify.
He describes judo as a type of universal language. “Judo is a sport code in which you constantly learn something new; you don’t stagnate. Everyone uses the same techniques and it is a sport for anyone – no matter what country or background you come from.”
This will not be Jacque’s first judo accomplishments. In 2009 he competed in the International Blind Sport Association (IBSA) Junior World Championships in Colorado Springs and won the gold medal in the U/73kg category.
He also went to Uzbekistan in 2019 to compete in the Tashkent Grand Prix, which was a Paralympic qualifier. He finished fifth among the seniors and that placed him among the top 20 judoka.
Jacque said that it has been an amazing journey, which he would not have been able to do without the help of a few people. He thanked Judo South Africa for not only their financial but also their moral support, as well as the University of Johannesburg for helping with his transport and travelling. He also expressed his gratitude toward Dirk and his fellow vision performance enhancement team coaches, Sondisa Magajana from the Eastern Cape and Rob Jordaan from KwaZulu-Natal.
