"The veterans world championships are still in full swing, but we can already say that these last eight days have been very intense and were a fantastic promotion for judo. We can consider this as a successful judo festival. For the last eight days, judo has been present in the UAE media non-stop.
What I like is that there was something for everyone. The grand slam, the kata and now the veterans have offered different types of judo for all our age groups. I think this was very educational for everyone.
As a federation, we want to co-operate as much as possible with the International Judo Federation because we believe that together we can go further. Talking about this edition of the veterans worlds, we are very satisfied. Our presence at the Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi campus is a great success. Thanks to everyone, we could deliver a top event. We are going to invest more in the veterans in the future. We want, in the near future, to combine the grand slam and veterans’ activities regularly.
We are thinking about a team event. It will be very exciting and fun for all the participants. We are now working on the best way to deliver such an event. You know it's the second time that we have welcomed the veterans world championships. The first time we had around 600 participants and this time it is more than 1,000. It's growing and it's growing fast.
I truly believe that this week was a beautiful mixture of different ways of practising the sport, with different levels, but all in all, it gave the feeling that there is one judo that goes beyond the competition itself, bringing people together. In Abu Dhabi we have the capacity to offer the world a place where they can enjoy judo as we do."