The Tournament of Paris is being played today and it would be such an amazing event to attend to watch let alone compete in. Before i retire from competitive judo i really want to compete in a Tournoi de paris.
Judo is a very popular sport in France and i think a large reason why it is popular is because David douillet multiple world and Olympic champion, married a lady of royalty in France. Since then the popularity of judo has risen alot.
The crowd in France are very knowledgeable and understand every aspect of the sport and really do get behind their athletes.
It was interesting to note that the lightweight divisions 60 and 66kg were dominated by up and coming Georgians and Mongolians.
It is funny to note that many people (including myself) believed that with the new rule change of no leg grabbing that countries like Georgia, Mongolia, Russia and all the other ex soviet nations would suffer tremendously due to the chage in styles. But it seems these countries have adapted their training regimes to accommodate the new rules and still dominate in international tournaments.
60kgs was won by a Georgian called Asumbani (not a villi like usual) and in second place was the Uzbek sobirov (who beat me at worlds 07) and in 3rd was france and japan.
Similar story in -66kg. The Korean and 2 time world champ Joo-jin Kim in first place followed by the 2 highly rated mongolians and the former 60kg powerhouise David Larose.
I dont usually watch any higher than -73kg and sometimes not even -73kgs. just because the guys i will be fighting are either fighting -60 or -66kg.
Here is a very nice Uchimata for ippon. Notice the Spainiards dominant right hand and due to whites bent over posture it was easy to get underneath for a nice uchimata for ippon.
Also here is the -60kg final
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