As President Vizer stated in his welcome letter to all delegations, "Our junior judoka have suffered a great deal through the last year and a half, navigating a pandemic and doing all they can to continue preparing for a full life and career in judo. We are proud of all they have achieved and look forward to seeing them give of their very best in Sardinia. With just 3 years until Paris we expect that many of our elite juniors will be aiming, longer term, at using their experience in Olbia as a springboard into the senior ranks and many are likely to appear in Paris in 2024."
Dr Lisa Allan, IJF Events Director, opened the official draw of the competition, "Welcome to the beautiful island of Sardinia and a special thank you to the organisers of the event and the local sponsors."
Then Vladimir Barta, IJF Head Sport Director said, "Distinguished guests and participants, on behalf of President Marius Vizer, I am delighted to welcome you to Olbia. It's a very important event since we didn't have junior world championships last year. This is the most prestigious competition for the juniors."
Domenico Falcone, President of FIJLKAM (Italian Judo Federation), declared, "On behalf of the Italian Judo Federation, I would like to welcome each of you to the 2021 World Judo Championships for juniors, taking place in the well known city of Olbia, that has already successfully hosted the 2016 Veteran European Championships and the 2017 Kata and Veteran World Championships. It is an honour for my Federation to organise this event, despite the difficult moments caused by the world pandemic. It’s such an important event, that will represent the first challenging step for the athletes who will be involved on the route to Paris 2024. I wish all the participants an excellent experience, a lot of luck to achieve their goals and the possibility to enjoy these days near the beautiful beaches of the Mediterranean Sea. Finally, I would like to thank the International Judo Federation for the confidence shown with the assignment of the event and the local authorities for the support provided to the organisers."
Florin Daniel Lascau, IJF Head Refereeing Director, underlined the fact the best referees in the world were appointed to officiate for the duration of the championships, to guarantee the fairness of the event, while Michael Tamura, IJF Sport Director, took the lead of the technical part of the draw for the first time since the Judo Canada President was appointed to the IJF Executive Committee last June. "I was a keen to take care of the technical part of the draw with appropriate consideration for its smooth delivery and making sure all details were correct. It represents a lot. I didn't want to make any mistakes," said Mr Tamura, before adding, "I am happy that everything went well and I am so grateful to the IJF and President Vizer for giving me the chance to be part of this event in such a way."
On day 1 of the Junior World Championships, the preliminary matches will start at 9:00am on three tatami. On the following days the kick-off of the competition will be at 10:00am, with the best judoka meeting on the central mat for the final block at 16:00 every day. On day 1, the opening ceremony will take place at 15:30.
After four days of individual competition, the now well known and spectacular mixed team event will take place between the top 15 teams in the world.
The whole competition can be followed at https://live.ijf.org/ and on all IJF social media platforms using #JudoJuniors