It is in the presence of the President of the International Judo Federation, Mr Marius Vizer, the President of the Judo Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dr Branislav Crnogorac, the Minister of Culture and Sport of Sarajevo Canton, Mr Samir Avdić and the President of the European Judo Union, Dr Laszlo Toth, that the official opening ceremony of the event took place.
Mr Branislav Crnogorac declared, "Welcome to Sarajevo. I would like to thank the IJF President, the EJU President and the Minister of Culture and Sport for being here with us today. The sport city of Sarajevo loves people and people love Sarajevo. We have organised many events in our city and for the second time we welcome the World Championships for Cadets. The IJF and Mr Vizer are great friends of our country.
Mr Vizer has always been on our side, supporting us even during the most difficult times. Today judo has become the best sport in terms of results in our country. We will work hard to do more in the next Olympic cycle. I want to thank our organising committee and our volunteers. Thank you to our sponsors and the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I wish you a nice stay here and good luck."
Mr Samir Avdić said, "It's a special honour and pleasure, on behalf of the Sarajevo Canton, to wish you a successful competition. The Canton of Sarajevo and the city of Sarajevo will continue to support sport and judo in particular. I’m convinced that you will achieve top results here and represent your respective countries well. Feel comfortable and enjoy our country."
Dr László Tóth added, "On behalf of the European Judo Union, I'd like to greet all participants who came to Sarajevo. Congratulations to the host judo federation and the authorities for the excellent organisation. Thank you to Sarajevo Canton. I wish you a successful competition."
Mr Marius Vizer concluded, "Dear Excellency Minister of Culture and Sports, dear President of the National Olympic Committee, dear EJU President, all media representatives, sponsors and dear judoka, it is a great honour for us to be meeting again in Sarajevo. Thank you for the organisation and the support you all provided to make this competition a success. Judo is education. It teaches us friendship, solidarity, unity and peace. We will continue to promote our activities worldwide, because judo helps us to build bridges which offer peace."
On this special occasion, the IJF President presented the Jigoro Kano statue, designed by Herend Porcelain, to Mr Avdić for his continued support for the development of sport and judo in the country and a lifetime achievement award to Mr Crnogorac for his never-ending support for the promotion of judo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the whole region. Then the national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the IJF anthem were played. The opening ceremony was concluded with a musical performance just before the start of the final block.
After a spectacular final block, the IJF President said, "We have seen some good judo today, some good quality judo and something that was obvious: matches that were very open, without too much tactical play. It was nice to see so much engagement from our young athletes. Congratulations to all winners and participants."
It must be said that today's final block was especially spectacular. We also heard two national anthems that are not regular on the international judo scene. The one from Armenia, with the victory of Karapetyan and the one from India, who for the first time in history were present on the podium of a world championship, across all age groups and weight categories. This was very special for everyone present in the stadium and it underlined perfectly the words of President Vizer during the opening of the competition: judo offers friendship, solidarity, unity and peace.
Tomorrow is the last day of the individual competition with the gold medals in the four last categories at stake: Women -70kg and +70kg and Men -90kg and +90kg
Follow the action at: https://live.ijf.org/
Preliminary rounds: 11:00am
Final bloc: 4:00pm