The draw started with the announcement of the tragic passing away of Kazbek Zankishiev at the age of 31. A bronze medallist at the world championships, he was a talented judoka and will be missed by the judo family. The IJF conveys its deepest condolences to all his relatives and friends.
The official draw was attended on the IJF side by Mr Vlad Marinescu, Director General, Vladimir Barta, Head Sports Director, Armen Bagdasarov, Head Refereeing Director, and on the Austrian Judo Federation side by, President Martin Poiger, Corina Korner, Secretary General, and Yvonne Snir-Bönisch, Head Coach of the national team.
After having welcomed the president and secretary general of the Austrian Judo Federation, Vlad Marinescu declared, "To be here with an Olympic champion, Yvonne Bönisch, who is also the head of the Austrian judo team, is a big honour as we start the draw together for this second edition of the Upper Austria Grand Prix.
We are coming from an amazing grand slam that just finished in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last week, where judoka demonstrated fantastic judo abilities, exciting energy and passion from the sold-out stadium as well as from people watching at home.
It is a great pleasure to come here with 78 countries and 528 of the best judoka from around the world, in Upper Austria to compete in the qualifying race for the Paris Olympic Games.
Judo is a sport based on values and here we are very happy to see 6,000 people in the stadium throughout the weekend, who are going to feel the energy and demonstrate the judo values, watching superb judo.
We'd like to thank, of course, Upper Austria and the Austrian Judo Federation for the hard work of the local organising committee, all the partners and our sponsors. We wish all the judo fans at home a great show on https://judotv.com Thank you!"
President Poiger then took the floor, "Dear Director General, dear Vlad, thank you for the kind words. Dear honoured Executive Committee members of the IJF, it's my great pleasure to welcome you to the second grand prix here in Austria. For a couple of years we tried to develop our federation. We are not the biggest federation but we try our best to develop in all areas and all fields. To take this step from a European open to a grand prix was really successful last year.
We also learned our lessons and I'm quite confident that this year we will have a really good grand prix. I'd to thank the Ministry of Sport and especially the Upper Austria region. We can have such an event because of their support. This year we also manage to get the city of Linz's collaboration. Step by step we are growing, thanks also to sponsors and our partners.
I can sit here quite relaxed because I have a very strong team; this is the other big factor here. I'd like to thank my general secretary, Corina Korner. She is leading the organising committee. They did a really great job over the last weeks. I am also happy to sit with Yvonne Snir-Bönisch. I can take the opportunity to announce that we will prolong our collaboration until LA 2028. She proved to be the right person for us.
I'd like to remind everyone that we will enjoy International Women's Day tomorrow and this is another reason why I am proud of my federation and of my team. We need role models like Corina and Yvonne. I invite all my male colleagues to stand with us. Let's not just give flowers but also equal access to opportunity to all women. I think we will all benefit a lot.
Finally I'd like to thank all delegations for joining here for this grand prix, from all over the world; 78 countries is amazing. I wish all teams the best of luck and on the way to the Paris Olympic Games, we are all thrilled. We can not wait to arrive in Paris in July."
Then Armen Bagdasarov explained that the best referees were chosen for this event, before Vladimir Barta proceeded with the draw itself.
Programme Friday 8th March 10:00 - Preliminaries on 4 tatami 16:30 - Opening ceremony 17:00 - Final block on 1 tatami
Saturday 9th March 10:30 - Preliminaries on 4 tatami 17:00 - Final block on 1 tatami
Sunday 10th March 10:30 - Preliminaries on 4 tatami 17:00 - Final block on 1 tatami
As was underlined during the opening speeches, 528 athletes from 78 delegations will compete. -81kg will be the biggest category for men (56 competitors), while for the women it will be -63kg (38 competitors). With IWD taking place on day 1 of the event, Vladimir Barta highlighted the fact that in Paris this summer, we will have perfect equality between men and women in terms of participation.
Follow all the action at https://judotv.com/