Today at 2 p.m. the first draw of this new era of world judo took place in the presence of, for the IJF, Mr Naser Al Tamimi, General Treasurer, Mr Vladimir Barta, Head Sport Director and Mr Florin Daniel Lascau, Head Referee Director. For the Croatian Judo Federation, President Dr Sanda Corak, Mr Miroslav Novkovic, Acting Secretary General, and Ms Renata Flajhar, Senior Expert Advisor for Sport of the City of Zagreb, were present.
Mr Naser Al Tamimi said, "Dear Dr Sanda Corak, President of the Croatian Judo Federation, dear Croatian Judo Federation members, dear judo family, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the IJF President, Mr Marius Vizer, I would like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation for the continued effort to organise the grand prix in the city of Zagreb. I would like to thank the Croatian Judo Federation, the IJF and local sponsors and the media for their support for our event year by year."
Dr Sanda Corak declared, "Good afternoon dear athletes, coaches, sport officials and media representatives, dear IJF colleagues, Mr Al Tamimi, Mr Barta and Mr Lascau, it is really a great pleasure to wish you all a warm welcome to the 11th edition of the IJF Grand Prix Zagreb, on behalf of the Croatian Judo Federation.
After an exciting Olympic Games in Paris, we are entering a new Olympic cycle and we are very glad that the first competition for new judoka to have the possibility of collecting IJF points is taking place here.
For us, for the federation, this was a challenging task after organising several important judo events, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who helped us, especially our Ministry of Tourism and Sport and the City of Zagreb, which supported this grand prix financially and of course all our generous sponsors and donors.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who are helping and who helped during the preparation of this grand prix. We are grateful to Mr Vizer for always supporting the work of the Croatian Judo Federation.
I hope that you will have some nice memories from this grand prix and that the whole event will be held in an atmosphere of mutual respect and friendship. I wish you all an enjoyable stay in Zagreb and the best of luck during the competition."
Sheldon Franco-Rooks then delivered all the necessary information for the smooth running of the event, before Florin Daniel Lascau gave information about refereeing matters.
Competition Programme:
Friday 13th September 2024
- 11:00 - Preliminaries on 3 tatami
- 17:00 - Final block on 1 tatami
Saturday 14th September 2024
- 11:00 - Preliminaries on 3 tatami
- 17:00 - Final block on 1 tatami
Sunday 15th September 2024
- 12:00 - Preliminaries on 3 tatami
- 17:00 - Final block on 1 tatami
Venue: Arena Zagreb
It was then time for the technical aspect of the draw, the moment awaited by all judoka and fans. To introduce the draw Vladimir Barta underlined, "First of all I would like to congratulate President Sanda Corak for the excellent and historic result at the Paris Olympics with the gold medal of Barbara Matic. This is amazing. I am happy to be here to share this with you. It was an excellent performance.
Now we start to draw the first ranking event after the Olympics."
Mr Barta detailed the statistics of this grand prix: 319 athletes from 40 different countries, respectively 186 men and 133 women.
On day one the competition will begin at 11:00 and can be followed live at https://judotv.com/