2 Athletes per country per weight at WC

The IJF have just past a motion stating the each nation may send 2 athletes per weight division to the world championships.
It is an interesting situation and one i don't know if i'm happy about. For one point. At the moment there is already around 60 guys in the category and in order to win you must win a maximum of around 5 or 6 fights. Now if there are double that number that means more fights throughout the day leading to a very very very long day.
Secondly with these new rules japan have a big advantage and in many divisions they will come first and second or at least place in the top 5. Its going to look a bit stupid.
In saying that though the world champs are the best in the world competing, and in many countries like japan Korea France Germany china the top 2 or even 3 could win the worlds and it is unfair that only one of the players gets to go while the others don't. But this will only affect the countries that have alot of depth.

In the end we will just have to see how all these new rules work out because in the end you just have to fight the guy in front of you and beat them, make them lose and you win. Simple.

Here is the article below


International Judo Union
The International Judo Federation Technical Committee meeting held in Tokyo in the last days of December 2009 decided that starting in 2010, two athletes per weight category are allowed to represent a nation.
The suggestion was made by the IJF President, Mr. Marius Vizer. The decision is valid for World Championships Senior, Junior and Cadets.

“We noticed that many good athletes had to stay at home. There were full generations not allowed to compete in the World Championships. Take alone the case of -48kg in Japan, with Rioko Tani reigning for such a long time and also what can happen to the heavy weights in France with Tedy Rinner supremacy”, says IJF Head Sports Director Mr. Vladimir Barta.

Mr. Barta also gave examples of top athletes struggling inside their countries to qualify like the case of Alexander Mikhailin and Tamerlan Tmenov, in Russia.

“Both are top judoka but only one could perform in the World Championships”, Mr. Barta adds.

Since the new Olympic qualification system based in the World Ranking says that the athlete owns its place (not the country as before), the fact that two judoka can go to the World Championships provide a more fair environment for them to fight for their qualification.
Manoela Penna, IJF Media Director