Judokas go on open trial for African tourney

Nigeria determined to reassert her position in continental judo has thrown the doors open to every judoka of her own both within the country and abroad to participate in the National Judo Open trial scheduled for Benin City, the Edo State capital.The event will run from April 18-20 at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.

The judokas are however expected to take care of their expenses for the three day event which is organised by the Nigeria Judo Federation, NJF to raise a team for the upcoming African Judo Championships billed for South Africa next month. The judokas would only become the responsibility of the judo federation after surviving the trial and getting invited into the national team.

National judo coach Edokpolor Ihaza while speaking with nigeriasports.com explained the importance of the Open tournament.
“The Open tournament is very important for the country this year. First, the Open will enable us raise a formidable team for the African championship coming up in South Africa in May”, Edokpolor said. The coach admitted that the country’s judo fortunes had been on the decline since the Commonwealth Games hosted by Manchester in 2002.

“Most of our good judokas” he revealed “migrated to the United Kingdom in search of the proverbial golden fleece”. He said that since then it had been a building process and the Open was part of that process. “From the Open, we will also know how far we have gone in our building process though with our outings in some international tournaments like the All Africa Games and the African Judo championships, we are already on course to hit the top” Edokpolor stressed. The three day event is expected to produce 16 judokas of eight males and eight females who will eventually move into camp for the African championship.

The continental showpiece would be hosted in Port Elizabeth, South Africa between May 16-21. African judo championships had always been dominated by nations from the Maghreb like Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. These countries also constitute an influential force at the global level which explains why the International Judo Federation IJF picked Egypt to host the world championship for
this year in September.

Report: By IKPO IGBINOBA