The second day of the 40th edition of the CISM World Military Judo Championships ended after an exciting day of judo.
The number of World Judo Tour athletes was once again impressive and confirmed the impression of day one, that the military event is a high level judo competition.
Ilias Iliadis, world and Olympic champion, is a recognised coach now and he was also present in Brétigny-sur-Orge for the event, to accompany the Uzbek team. His observations about the event were, as always, interesting,
“It’s a very good event with an interesting level. There are not so many countries but this is logical due to the pandemic. Nevertheless the countries that came did so with top players”, says Iliadis for Judo Inside.
“For Uzbekistan it’s an important competition to participate in. All our athletes are in the armed forces, so they have to be here to represent the country. In Uzbekistan we are all training together, the young ones and the more experienced competitors. After this we will go to the World Judo Tour events in Baku and Abu Dhabi, so this World Military Championships is a good test and part of the preparation, especially since we are already preparing our big rendezvous at the World Championships in Uzbekistan next year. We want to have the best team next year, so it all starts here.”
“The event is not over yet; tomorrow we have two important activities. One will focus on Paralympic athletes together with military personal who were injured during their service. They will discover judo, a sport that is totally adapted to their condition.”
“Then we’ll have a second exploration with young people from the region who will be able to discover judo on the tatami with members of the French national team. It’s a premiere on the occasion of such an event. Then to finish we’ll have the team event on Tuesday, so there is still a lot to come.”
