As the Junior World Championships is in full swing in Zagreb, Croatia, and the best juniors athletes representing the future of judo are competing for the IJF honours, the IJF President, Mr. Marius Vizer, announced today that for the second year in a row the world number one senior judoka in each weight category (male and female) will be awarded with $50,000 prize money.

In 2016 the 14 judoka representing 10 countries, who ended 2016 as the world number ones were:

MUNKHBAT Urantsetseg (MGL) -- 48kg

Majlinda KELMENDI (KOS) -- 52kg

DORSUREN Sumiya (MGL) -- 57kg

Tina TRSTENJAK (SLO) -- 63kg

Kim POLLING (NED) -70kg

Kayla HARRISON (USA) -78kg

Idalys ORTIZ (CUB) +78kg

Orkhan SAFAROV (AZE) -60kg

An BAUL (KOR) -66kg

Rustam ORUJOV (AZE) -73g

NAGASE Takanori (JPN) -81kg

BAKER Mashu (JPN) -90kg

Elmar GASIMOV (AZE) -100kg

Teddy RINER (FRA) +100kg

There are still a handful of events before the end of 2017 as Abu Dhabi Grand Slam is about to take place in the upcoming week and will be followed by the The Hague Grand Prix in the Netherlands, the Tokyo Grand Slam in Japan and the World Judo Masters in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In November the International Judo Federation will also organise the Open World Championships in Marrakech, Morocco. While this event is not part of the IJF World Judo Tour that offers points for the World Ranking List it does boast a record amount of prize money of 500,000 which will be divided across the men's and women's openweight medallists.

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