Judo World Championships Opens

(ATR) The first medals are being awarded in the 2009 Judo World Championships, underway this week in Rotterdam.

A total of 543 competitors from 100 countries are credentialed for the tournament: 334 men, 209 women.

The championship marks the latest efforts by the International Judo Federation to increase the spectator and TV appeal of the sport. This year the competition will last five days instead of four, effectively ending a schedule that began in the morning and ended in the evening.

This week, all events will finish in the late afternoon.

IJF President Marius Vizer says the previous schedule made attending the judo championships “more of an obligation than a pleasure”.

Vizer is pushing to further lengthen the schedule to cover one week, as well as seeking to expand the schedule for the Olympics. In Beijing judo was held over seven days with sessions lasting about seven hours.

The first day crowd at the Ahoy Arena topped about 3,000, half the capacity of the hall. Organizers say they expect to sell 25,000 tickets to the competition.

The championships will include participation for the first time by a group of judoka from Kosovo. The team from the emerging Balkan nation will compete under the flag of the IJF, as the United Nations, as well as the IOC, has not yet recognized the state of Kosovo.

The 2009 event may be the last to allow competitors to use moves which involve grabbing below the belt. Vizer is advocating for stricter judging to discourage such techniques, which he says will result in increased use of more traditional judo techniques.

The stricter judging will go into effect at the upcoming world junior championships and is supposed to be followed at the 2010 world championships in Tokyo.

Written by Ed Hula.