Egypt becomes the first African country to host a world judo championship when the 24th edition begins today in Cairo. Inas Mazhar reports In 1994, Egypt hosted the World Junior Judo Championship becoming the first ever African country to host an international event in the sport. Today it goes one better, hosting the World Judo Championship, the only African country to hold a judo tournament of such magnitude and importance. The four-day competition will be held at Cairo Stadium. Judoka are to compete in a single-elimination tournament after being divided into two pools by a draw. An unusual twist is that two bronze medals are awarded. To determine them, all judoka who lose to one of the two pools' semi-finalists fall into a further single-elimination bracket within the same groups. The winner in each of those groups faces the runner-up of the opposite group in the matches for bronze. Three participants from three different countries must compete in a category in order that the championship for that category be held. Competitors may only be entered in the weight category to which they belong. A participant can only be entered in one weight category and in the "Open" category which has no weight limits. There is no age limit for competitors. The draw was scheduled to be conducted yesterday. The four medal winners (gold, silver and two bronze) of each weight category of the Athens Olympic Games 2004 (male and female) and for the Open categories the medal winners (male and female) of the 23rd World Judo Championships in Osaka, Japan will be 'seeded before the draw, if they compete in the same categories. The system of competition will be the elimination system with double repechage. For all categories the competitors will be divided into two tables by means of a draw, and an elimination system will be used to produce two finalists. All competitors defeated by the pool winners of A1, A2, B1 and B2 will take part in the repechage of their respective pools according to the elimination system. Their final contest will be against the loser of the final of each respective other table. The winners (2) of those contests are placed 'third', the losers (2) are placed 'fifth'. The competitors, who lost their last contest during the repechage against the competitors placed 'fifth', will then be placed 'seventh'. Anti-doping control will be conducted in each category for the winner, one of the three other medal winners and one of the 5th and 7th placed competitors. Judo means "the gentle way" in Japanese. It is derived in part from jujitsu, the hand-to-hand combat technique of ancient samurai warriors. While throwing opponents to the floor wins most matches, it is the only Olympic sport where submission holds allow choking an opponent or breaking an arm. Developed by Jigoro Kano in the 1880s, the sport broke into the Olympic Games in 1964 in Tokyo. The host country could add one sport, and Japan chose judo. Four weight classes were established, and Japanese entries promptly won three. However, in the fourth, the open class, a 1.98- metre Dutchman named Anton Geesink defeated three-time Japanese national champion Kaminaga Akio before 15,000 people at Nippon Budokan Hall. And then he beat him again. It followed victories earlier in the year over other top Japanese opponents, deeply bruising the theory that a skilled judoka could defeat any opponent of any size. Women's judo was added to the Olympic programme in 1992. Men and women now compete in seven weight classes each. In the Olympics, men's contests last five minutes and women's last four. In Cairo 2005, both men and women will compete for five minutes each.
