Former IJF Head of Refereeing Jan Snijders was awarded the Anton Geesink award by the Dutch Judo Association. Anton Geesink was the first non-Asian who became world and Olympic judo champion in the heavyweight category.
Recently Snijders was invited at the IJF Junior World Championships in Olbia to see his successors and to discuss questions with coaches and delegates about various the referee situations including the Olympic Games.
In January 2020 Snijders was awarded the ninth Dan by the International Judo Federation. The 78-year old is with Chris de Korte the highest holder of Dan Grades and an international authority in the field of judo refereeing.
He started judo in 1954 and in 1961 won gold at the European Junior Championships. In 1962, he was European Champion in Essen and in 1964 he participated in the first Olympics in Tokyo. During the years 1962 to 1972, he was a member of the Dutch national team. He was a referee at seven world championships and at several Olympic Games (Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992).
“This was the highest level, but not for every referee at all days at all matches, it was inconsequent behaviour and too much discussion about penalties that should have given much faster and consequent”, says Snijders.
“We have seen matches of 12 minutes in golden score which cannot be the case if referees strictly keep the same level of judging and penalizing on the rules. The rules are clear for everybody such as stepping out of the mat of the time that athletes have for an attack, but they were not followed up all the time which causes inconsequent decisions.”
