Get ready for the Senior World Championships in Tashkent. The official draw is scheduled for Wednesday, 16:00 (local time, MEZ: 13:00), the first competition day (-48/-60) starts on Thursday, 10:00 (local time, MEZ: 07:00). Find below the most important facts and figures from a European Judo Union point of view.
2 (European) Olympic champions from Tokyo (Lasha BEKAURI/GEO/-90, Lukas KRPALEK/CZE/+100) and 5 world champions from Budapest (Barbara MATIC/CRO/-70, Anna Maria WAGNER/GER/-78, Lasha SHAVDATUASHVILI/GEO/-73, Matthias CASSE/BEL/-81 and Jorge FONSECA/POR/-100 will be going for another gold medal in Tashkent.
Based on the ranking order for this event, 10 out of 14 current IJF World Ranking leaders are from Europe, the only two exceptions are Yung Wei YANG (TPE/-60), Davlat BOBONOV (UZB/-90), Temur RAKHIMOV (TJK/+100) and Jessica KLIMKAIT (CAN/-57kg).
A total of 571 athletes (261 women/310 men) from 82 countries – including 106 top-ten (IJF ranking) athletes – will be competing.
8 nations (BRA, FRA, ISR, ITA, JPN, MGL, USA, UZB) will be using the maximum contingent of 18 athletes each.
The weight categories with the most participants are -70kg (women) with 44 and -73kg (men) with 51.
Talking about quality the -81 kg (men) category is exceptional with all 10 of the top-10 of the world ranking list, the reigning world champion (Matthias CASSE/BEL) and the reigning Olympic champion (Takanori NAGASE/JPN) looking for glory. The 28-year-old Japanese, shooting star Joonhwan LEE (KOR, 20, two-time Grand Slam winner this year) as well as former World champion Sagi MUKI (ISR) will be unseeded.
Judoka
Author: EJU Media