Morgan Endicott Davies

Early years

Endicott-Davies' mother is Japanese (from Kyoto) and his father, Ivor Endicott-Davies, came from the small town of Balclutha in New Zealand's South Island. His father received his 6th dan in judo in 2007.

In 1993—at the age of 19—Endicott-Davies travelled from Australia to Japan with his family and stayed there for one year. Soon after arriving in Japan, he took up judo, learning at Waseda University Judo Club. He received his black belt after twelve months. During his time in Japan, he also learned Japanese.

Career highlights

In 1995, a year after returning to Australia, he won a bronze medal at the Australian national titles.

After cross-training with an All-Japan amateur sumo champion for three years, Endicott-Davies competed at the Sumo World Championships in 1997, winning a bronze medal in the under 85 kg division.

His first international judo competition followed in 1998 at the Oceania championships, where he won a bronze medal in the under 81 kg division and a silver in the open weight division.

He was a reserve for the Sydney Olympics judo team in 2000.

He won his first Australian National Judo Championships gold medal in 2001, and went on to compete in the Pacific Rim Championships, British Open, Kano Cup (World Level) and then the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, where he placed in the top four.

Olympic Games - Athens 2004

After ten years of a grueling training regime in Australia, Japan, Korea, England and Germany, he won the Oceania championships in 2003, and was selected for the 2004 Australian Olympic judo team. He competed in Athens, finishing ninth. He also represented Australia at the 2005 World Judo Championships in Cairo, where he was unplaced.

In 2008 Morgan was selected to represent Australia in the U/100 kg Division at the 2008 Jigaro Kano Cup in Tokyo, Japan after becoming the Number One Ranked Judoka in Australia in the Under 100 kg Weight Category.

In 2009 Morgan was again selected to represent Australia again in U/100 kg Division the at Pacific Rim Championships in Taipei and the World Championships in the Netherlands.

Current

Morgan is currently an elite member of the Judo Federation of Australia's High Performance Squad and Current Head Coach of the Senior New South Wales Judo Team.

Along with other senior New South Wales black belt instructors, he set up the Black Belt Register (BBR) Judo Academy, a volunteer organisation which has as its objective to provide strong technical instruction to all members in that state.

Morgan and his father founded the Budokan Judo Club in Castle Hill in Sydney. He is currently the head instructor of Zenbu Judo Club, a club he founded in July 2005. The club trains at two dojos: one situated in Sydney Olympic Park, the other at Terrey Hills, also in Sydney.

Other

Endicott-Davies received a Bachelor of Commerce Degree in Management from the University of Western Sydney in 1998.