"Fist of all, I want to thank President Vizer and all my colleagues for the amazing support I have received during all those years. I want to include the EC members, the staff and all the national federations who helped me in my mission since the first day. Thank you for their trust. I really feel that all sectors are supporting us. I want also the thank all federations which have been involved in organising our events. Without them, nothing would be possible. For all those reasons, I am happy to stay as General Treasurer.
I have been watching the World Championships since day 1. In the morning, I like to be here and just watch. Judo is beautiful, judo is a martial art, which means an art. I simply enjoy it. I believe that having such a big event in the region is great and I am happy about it. For Qatar but also for the whole region, it's an important step to see the best athletes on this planet competing for the world title.
I think it's a good sign for the future and I am looking forward to having more global events in the region. I am convinced this will be the case. It's a good promotion for our new and future generations. They can follow their heroes.
In Abu Dhabi we have been organising first a grand prix, then a grand slam, for many years. We also hosted the junior worlds and the veterans and kata world championships. These big events give visibility to the sport, which becomes more and more popular. In my country, judo is the top Olympic sport. Thanks to this we get more support from our government.
Year after year I can feel that the interest for judo is growing. So here in Qatar, where I feel like I do at home, I am pleased to see the level of organisation. I think that what we have been doing in Abu Dhabi contributed greatly to the success of this edition of the world championships. What we see here in terms of organisation is one of the top competitions. The judo level is also incredibly high.
I was a professional basketball player earlier in my life. Sport has always played in important role for me. I studied sport management and law. I can say that sport is in my heart but judo is special. As I said, its a martial art and therefore an art. When I got involved with judo, I started to practise because I wanted to know and to understand the rules, the principles and the values. I quickly undertsood that judo teaches discipline, respect, that it helped our young people to be more focused and have better behaviour. That is the reason why in 2005 we already started to implement judo in schools and we keep developing the educational dimension of the sport.
Really, it's easy to fall in love with judo. You just have to watch and enjoy the beauty of it. It's pure. Having two athletes, one in white, one in blue, producing nice techniques and competing fairly and respectfully, is what our world needs. It is attractive.
The values carried by judo are also crucial for our modern society. In Abu Dhabi, our leaders understand that sport is sport and politics is politics and thanks to the leadership of President Vizer, we were able to welcome the Israeli team even before the diplomatic relationships between our two countries were initiated. Judo paved the way. Through our judo event in Abu Dhabi, we could explain to the people that new steps were about to come."
It would be possible to talk for hours with Naser Al Tamimi. Not being a judoka initially, he became an expert and enjoys nothing more than watching the competition. We therefore let him go to enjoy the World Judo Championships - Doha 2023 and we are sure that judo will keep developing with him as the IJF General Treasurer and also a pure fan of the sport.