27th
September 2005. After
supplying pictures of the Cairo World Championships to five judo
magazines with a combined circulation of more than 125,000, I have
now put a selection of the photos on the web site at this link
CAIRO WORLDS. The link is also on the right
border and the Olympiads page. The pages are divided into the four days of the individual
championships. On the fifth day the IJF held an impromtu World Team
Tournament by Country and photographs are available of this if
required.
There has been much criticism of the Cairo Worlds
with much of it deserved. It was a bold and far sighted decision to
increase African judo participation and take such a major
championships to to the continent. However, not all of the adverse
publicity can be levelled at the Egyptian Organising Committee. For
instance, Arabic is read from right to left and as a result the
competitors were adorned with their given name not their family name -
Craig instead of Fallon for Craig Fallon GBR. This, along with similar accreditation
problems, should have been anticipated by the IJF who held the World
Junior Championships in Cairo in 1994. The 'dirty garage' warm-up area
could easily have been changed to a wing of the underground tunnel or,
even better, one of the smaller side halls where there were mats down
and some judo players practising. At the very least the IJF, in
conjunction with the Egyptian organiers, should have
installed a professional organiser in Cairo well before the start of
the championships to ensure that most of the problems that arose were
corrected prior to the first day. David Finch
Cairo
11th September 2005. RIVALS MEET IN WORLD FINAL. Osaka 2003 world
silver
medallist, Craig Fallon (left throwing today with kata guruma)
of Britain and 2004 European champion Ludwig Paischer of
Austria met in the super-lightweight (60kgs) final here in Cairo. For
most of the last two years Fallon has avoided Paischer who has
capitalised on Fallon's absence with the European title in 2004 and a
silver this year. The strategy was devised by his coach, Fitzroy
Davies (left with Fallon), who sent Fallon to train in Japan during
last year's Europeans in readiness for Athens and even put him up a
weight to avoid Fallon meeting Paischer at the British Open.
This year
Fallon did not compete in the Europeans for the second year and
watched Paischer win the silver from the sidelines. The only
competition where both could have met was at Paris in February. There
Fallon, who won a bronze, was stopped from reaching the final by
Tatsuaki Egusa of Japan who then lost the gold to Paischer. However,
in Cairo Fallon easily eliminated Egusa with a hold for ippon. Davies'
risky strategy was not tested in Athens when both Fallon and Paischer
went out
in the early rounds but a year later both proved to be the best in the
world when they reached the final in Cairo. The margin of Fallon's
superiority was just enough to win the title and prove the worthiness
of the Fitzroy Davies strategy.
In the other categories seventeen year old Yanet
Bermoy (above right) of Cuba defeated Frederique Jossinet of
France in the 48kgs final. In the men's open Dennis Van der Geest
(right) of Holland at last proved to be
the best in the World when he
threw Tamerlan Tmenov of Russia with osotogari for ippon in the final.
In the women's open Britain's
Karina Bryant won her second silver medal of the championships when
she lost to Midori Shintani (middle right) of Japan in the
final. David Finch. Captioned pictures will follow soon.
Women 48kgs G: Y Bermoy CUB, S: F Jossinet FRA,
B: S Haddad ALG and A Dumitru ROM.
Men 60kgs G: C Fallon GBR, S: L Paischer AUT, B: N Shikhalizada AZE
and N S Cho KOR
Women Open G: M Shintani JPN, S: K Bryant GBR, B: C Uilenhoed NED and
A S Mondiere FRA
Men Open G: D Van der Geest NED, S: T Tmenov RUS, B: J Rybak BLR and Y
Takai JPN
Cairo,
Saturday 10th September 2005. TWO WINS TO ONE IN THIRD FINAL
MEETING. Extraordinarily
Sun Hui Kye (left) of North Korea and Yvonne Boenisch of
Germany met for the third time in three years in the World's most
prestigious finals. In 2003 at Osaka Kye, who first won a major title
at the 1996 Olympics when she defeated Ryoko Tamura in the 48kgs
division, defeated Yvonne Boenisch of Germany for the first time and
57kgs gold medal. In 2001 she had also won gold at the Munich Worlds
at 52kgs. At Athens Boenisch reversed the roles and defeated Kye, a
hardened communist who wore the North Korean flag at the Atlanta medal
ceremony, with taiotoshi for a yuko. Today Kye's score was more
convincing when she upended Boenisch with uchimata for ippon in the
above sequence. This time, though, Boenisch did not break her elbow as
she had done in 2003 in
the Osaka final.
Interestingly,
Kye's semi-final match against Yurisle Lupetey resulted in the
Cuban being stretched off with almost the exact same break to her
elbow that Boenisch suffered in Osaka. One spectator who saw the throw
at close quarters, Rusty Kanokogi of the IJF, said "That when force
met force, something had to give. Kye was determined to throw Lupetey
through the mat but the Cuban was not going to give away a score
resulting in her elbow giving way while attempting to avoid an ippon
loss".
Bonisch's broken elbow of two years earlier and Lupetey's made no
difference to her approach to the contest, it was her knee operation
last November that prevented her being completely fit. It also meant
that she missed many of the training camps and European competitions
and made her approach the contest a little hesitantly.
Immediately, Kye upended Boenisch and it was only her frighteningly
outstretched arm that avoided a score. Kye's next attack resulted in
ippon and her second emphatic defeat of Boenisch.
The other titles
went to Ying Li (right)of China at 52kgs and Joao
Derly Jnr (lower right) of Brazil at 66kgs. At 73kgs, Akos
Braun (lower left) of Hungary added the 73kgs World title to his
European gold of May.
52kgs G: Ying Li CHN, S: Yuki Yokosawa JPN, B: Telma Monteiro POR
and Kum Ae An PRK.
57kgs G: S H Kye PRK, S: Y Boenisch GER, B: K Erdenet-Od MGL and S Filmoser AUT
66kgs G: J D Junior BRA, S: M Uchishiba JPN, B: M Ugvari HUN and A
Miresmaili IRI
73kgs G: A Braun HUN, S: F Bruyere ITA, B: G Bilodid UKR and K Uematsu
ESP
Cairo
Friday 9th September 2005. DUTCH WIN TWO GOLDS. The Dutch team
joined the Japanese with two gold medals when Edith Bosch
(right) at 70kgs and Guillaume Elmont (left) at 81kgs took the
golds. After her Athens silver, Edith Bosch was always expected to be
heading for a world gold, but Elmont, without a European title was not
expected to top the world podium. A more likely expectation for the
81kgs title was Ole Bischoff of Germany who convincingly won the
Europeans, beating Elmont on the way but not even medalling in Cairo.
The other two golds went to Hiroshi Izumi (right) of Japan at
90 kgs and and Lucie Decosse (left) of France at 63kgs. Izumi
triumphed in impressive style when he countered the Ilias Iliadis,
Athens 81kgs champion and Greek 'wonder boy' imported from Georgia for
the
Olympics. Unbeaten since
Athens, Iliadis agreesively forced the pace in the final attacking
with uchimata but being countered for yuko. Izumi initiated the next
attack but Iliadis strongly defended causing Izumi to back off and
then attack again with an even stronger uchimata that caught Iliadis
unawares and put him heavily on his back for the title. David Finch.
70kgs: G: Edith Bosch NED, S: Gevrise Emane FRA, B: Catherine
Jaques BEL and Rasa Sraka SLO.
63kgs: G: Lucie Decosse FRA, S: Ayumi Tanimoto JPN, B: Urska Zolnir
SLO and Driulis Gonzalez CUB
81kgs: Guillaume Elmont NED, S: Abderahman Benamadi ALG, B: Roman
Gontyuk UKR and Takashi Ono JPN.
90kgs: Hiroshi Izumi JPN, S: Ilias Iliadis GRE, B: Mark Huizinga NED
and Andrei Kazusionak BLR.
8th September
2005 - Mikhaylin back on top of World while Suzuki saves Japanese
Face.
At long last 2001 double World Champion Alexandre Mikhalin RUS (left)
returned to the top of the heavyweight world tree with his decisive
ippon defeat of Muneta of Japan.
Three Japanese fought for gold
in the four finals of the first day but only one, heavyweight Olympic
champion Keiji Suzuki (right and below), stood on the number one spot at the end of the
day as a light heavyweight repeating his World title of 2003.
Tong (left) won the o78kgs for China, easily defeating Karina Bryant of
Great Britain while Yurisel Laborde of Cuba (bottom right) defeated Sae Nakazawa of
Japan for the 78kgs title.David
Finch
o78kgs G: TONG, Wen CHN, S: BRYANT, Karina GBR, B: MONDIERE, Ann
Sophie FRA + TSUKADA, Maki FRA
78kgs G: LABORDE, Yurisel CUB, S: NAKAZAWA, Sae JPN, B: LEBRUN,
Celine
FRA + ZWEIERS, Claudia NED
o100kgs G: MIKHALIN, Alexander RUS, S: MUNETA, Yasuyuki JPN, B: GUJEJIANA,
Lasha GEO + ROBIN,
Pierre FRA.
100kgs
G: SUZUKI, Keiji JPN, S: BUBOB, Vitaliy UKR, B: CORREA, Luciano BRA +
KABANOV, Dmitry RUS
6th September 2005: Park
Re-Elected World Judo President
In the midst of a business mess
in Korea, Park Yong-sung was re-elected president of the International
Judo Federation (IJF) for a third straight time at its general
assembly in Cairo, Egypt, Monday. Park
earned 100 votes in the ballot, beating Marius L.Vizer of Romania,
president of the European Judo Union, who earned 85 votes for the job,
which lasts four years.
Park, chairman of Doosan Group and a
member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has kept the job
for the last 10 years, first taking office in September 1995. He was
reelected in 2001. The election also secured his status as an IOC
member. In South Korea, IOC memberships are held only by Park and
Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee. SOURCE
Korea Times
4th
September 2005: Doosan Chairman Faces Tough Judo Election Fight
Doosan Group chairman Park Yong-sung (left) will find out
Tuesday morning whether he will be serving a third consequetive term
as president of the International Judo Federation (IJF) after an
election in Cairo, Egypt.
Park, 64, who is concurrently chairman of the International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC) and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)
and is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), will be
running against Judo Europe Federation president Marius Vizer.
Although the Judo Union of Asia pledged Park a vote of confidence
despite the ongoing accounting fraud and slush fund scandals
surrounding Doosan Group, it remains to be seen whether the Korean
business tycoon would be able to keep both posts in the IJF and IOC.
Vizer, a Romanian casino and cigarette
mogul supported by European IJF members, is mobilizing his cash to
campaign against Park and is reportedly highlighting the scandals
embroiling Doosan Group that exposed Park’s fight with brother
Yong-oh, who was forced to quit as chairman of the nation’s 10th
largest chaebol after losing a bitter fight management control.
However, as Doosan Group’s irregularities have been committed before
the current Doosan chairman took charge of the conglomerate, it is
uncertain how much damage Vizer can do to Park’s reputation. Park
Yong-sung is currently the target of a barrage of criticism from civic
activist groups that call on the industrialist to resign from various
key posts, including the chairman’s position at the KCCI. At the moment, he appears to be
capably defending his presidency thanks to a number of innovative
accomplishments that contributed to the worldwide popularity of Judo
during his second term, including the adoption of a blue uniform, or
``Judogi.’’ Park has an advantage over Vizer if African Judo
Union president Lassana Palenfo and other non-European IJF members
side with him.
The IJF presidential election result
is expected to influence the fate of Park in maintaining his other
titles in various high-profile posts. Park holds titles in more than
60 organizations both at home and abroad. Last Friday, the prosecution
conducted a search and seizure into Doosan Industrial Development, a
core Doosan Group subsidiary at the center of the corporate corruption
scandal, and confiscated 20 boxes of documents. The prosecution also
said that it is tracing roughly 100 bank accounts of Doosan Group
subsidiaries. Meanwhile Park Yong-oh will also find out if he still
has a job as the chairperson of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) CEO Summit 2005 Thursday. On Thursday, the Federation of
Korean Industries will convene its regular monthly conglomerate
chairman assembly, in which they will determine whether Park will
serve as chairman of the APEC CEO Summit.
Park also serves as the head of
the Korea-Taiwan Economic Cooperation Committee.
By Kim Sung-jin, Staff
Reporter Korea Times
For
most of the last two years Fallon has avoided Paischer who has
capitalised on Fallon's absence with the European title in 2004 and a
silver this year. The strategy was devised by his coach, Fitzroy
Davies (left with Fallon), who sent Fallon to train in Japan during
last year's Europeans in readiness for Athens and even put him up a
weight to avoid Fallon meeting Paischer at the British Open. 
with a hold for ippon. Davies'
risky strategy was not tested in Athens when both Fallon and Paischer
went out
in the early rounds but a year later both proved to be the best in the
world when they reached the final in Cairo. The margin of Fallon's
superiority was just enough to win the title and prove the worthiness
of the Fitzroy Davies strategy.
women's open Britain's
Karina Bryant won her second silver medal of the championships when
she lost to Midori Shintani (middle right) of Japan in the
final. David Finch. Captioned pictures will follow soon.
