The World Masters is the toughest of judo competitions, featuring the participation of the world's top 16 male and female players in each weight category. According to Egypt's judo team coach Bassem Al-Husseini, four judokas will represent Egypt in the three-day World Masters which starts Friday 27 May and ends Saturday 29 May: Mohamed Ahmed Mohie (73kg), Mohamed Ali Abdel-Aal (81kg), Ramadan Darwish (100kg) and Islam Al-Shehabi (+100kg). The Egyptian judokas have been busy gearing up for the Olympic Games even before winning the African Championships in Tunisia in April. They held a two-week training camp in the Czech Republic. Following the African victory, the Egyptians took part in a 21-day training camp in Japan and participated in the Grand Prix in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with assistant coach Haitham Al-Husseini. Darwish was not in Almaty but in France with coach Bassem Al-Husseini. According to the International Judo Federation (IJF), the competition will be conducted in accordance with the latest IJF SOR, IJF Refereeing Rules and IJF Anti-Doping Rules. The system of the competition starts with the quarter-final repechage in the following weight categories: -60kg, -66kg, -73kg, -81kg, -90kg, -100kg, +100kg for men, and women -48kg, -52kg, -57kg, -63kg, -70kg, -78kg, +78kg. The duration of the contest is set for five minutes for men and four minutes for women (real time). The IJF had invited the top 16 athletes in each weight category from the World Ranking List (WRL) on 16 May, after Almaty. Athletes can only be entered in the weight category for which they have been selected. The organising country has the right to have a minimum of one athlete in each category. If they do not qualify, an athlete in the top 16 will participate as the 17th athlete. The opening ceremony will take place on the first day of the competition following the preliminaries and final block of weight categories -48kg, -52kg, -57kg, M: -60 kg, -66kg. Weight categories preliminaries -63kg, -70kg, -73kg and -81kg will continue the following day and for the final block as well. The event will conclude on Saturday with the preliminaries and final block of weight categories 78kg, +78kg, -90kg, -100kg, +100kg. In addition to gold, silver and bronze medals, the World Masters offers the winners lucrative prize money. Gold medalists are to receive $6,000 (judoka $4,800 and the coach $1,200). Silver medalists are to receive prize money worth $4,000 (judoka $3,200 and coach $800) while bronze medal winners receive $2,000 for each (judoka $1,600 and coach $400). According to the director of the Egyptian Judo Federation Mounir Farid, the Egyptian judokas will take part in two more big international events including the European Open in Madrid from 3 to 6 June and the Grand Prix in Budapest from 24 to 30 June. “After these two events, all Olympic judokas from throughout the world will take part in an international camp organised by the International Judo Federation in Barcelona, Spain, from 1 to 9 July,” Farid told Al-Ahram Weekly.
