Judo is presently one of the most attractive combat sports of the Summer Olympics, which, in addition to appealing to the investors in the modern world of sports, it has also managed to maintain its organic ties with the culture and traditions of Japan.
Judo is an exercise of strength free from violence and its cornerstone is respect. On the other hand, the qualitative upgrading of judo and its accordance with the Olympic standards together with its geographical expansion to the far corners of the world has caused the influential role of judo in society’s health to draw the attention of educational institutions to the point that this sport is now taught in schools in many countries including Japan.
The targeted policies of the International Judo Federation (IJF) and its midterm planning has put this sport in the IOC’s center of attention insofar as with the approval of the IOC, since 2020, judo athletes have participated in the Olympic Games both in individual and team events.
The Abu Dhabi World Judo Championships, which is almost over, is proof to these claims. To maintain their championship titles, the athletes had no choice but to make extra efforts.
In -90 kg, Davlat Bobonov from Uzbekistan and a world gold medalist lost to Peter Safrany from Hungary in the second round.
At -78 kg, the German Anna Maria Wagner was quite agile and prepared. She won the gold medal defeating all of her competitors.
In the -100 kg final game, the Canadian Shady El Nahas lost to the Azerbaijani judoka Zelym Kotsoiev and won the silver medal.
In the +78 kg final game, the Japanese Wakaba Tomita defeated Kayra Ozdemir and won the gold medal for Japan.
In -70 kg, the French were amazing. Margaux Pinot and Eve Gahie, both from France won first and second places respectively.
The young Russian judoka Timur Arbuzov reached the final as a neutral athlete in the -81 kg and lost to Georgia’s Tato Grigalashvili who won the gold medal for Georgia. But Caramnob Sagaipov, a judoka from Lebanon and a bronze medalist of the Guangzhou Asian Games, drew much attention from judo experts. He had a superb performance in this round of games and won fifth place.
In +100 kg, Minjong Kim from South Korea, in -73 kg, Hidayat Heydarov from Azerbaijan, in -66 kg, Ryoma Tanaka from Japan, in -57 kg, Mi-mi Huh from South Korea and in -90 kg, Goki Tajima from Japan won gold.
Abu Dhabi also hosted a guest from Hollywood. Shin Koyamada, the Japanese actor and producer known for his role in The Last Samurai, together with the 1980s Romanian football star Helmuth Duckadam, were the International Judo Federation’s guests of honor in Abu Dhabi, giving a special spirit to these games with their presence.
