(Yomiuri)
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, will host the 61st edition of the Judo World Championships, taking place from Thursday 6 to Wednesday 13 October 2022.
Japan’s history-making siblings Abe Hifumi and Uta, Canada’s reigning world champion Jessica Klimkait, and Tokyo 2020 gold medallists Lasha Bekauri of Georgia and Lukas Krpalek of Czech Republic are some of the star judokas headlining the event.
Around 580 competitors from almost 90 nations will be in action at the Humo Ice Dome. It’s the first time the Central Asian nation has hosted the International Judo Federation (IJF)’s main competition, which was originally scheduled from 7-14 August.
Tashkent has been part of the IJF World Tour since 2013, hosting a Grand Slam in 2021 and seven Grand Prix event from 2013 to 2019.
The men’s competition was first held in 1956, while women had their own event from 1980 to 1986. Since 1987 the championships are mixed and take place once every year, except if there’s an Olympic Games. From 2017 the Worlds include a mixed team event, which made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
Japan top the all-time medal count with 164 titles (and 382 medals), followed by France (60 titles and 180 medals) and South Korea (29,102).
France's Teddy Riner has claimed 10 individual gold medals. Japan's Ryoko Tani is the most successful woman with seven titles.
Youngest: Teddy Riner (18 years and 159 days in 2007), Daria Bilodid (17 years and 345 days in 2018).
Oldest: Anton Geesink (31 years and 194 days in 1965), Driulis Gonzalez (33 years and 358 days in 2007).
Athletes can earn up to 2,000 ranking points towards qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics if they win the 2022 world title.
This represents the maximum number of points in a judo event apart from the Olympics (2,200 points). The qualification period for Paris 2024 started on 24 June 2022 and the top 17 countries across the 7 weight categories on 23 June 2024 in the IJF World Ranking List will earn a quota place. If within the same weight category a NOC has more than one athlete ranked in the top 17, the NOC can decide which of these athletes will receive the quota place.
There will be 14 individual sets of medals at stake in Tashkent, across seven weight categories.
Japan won all four editions of the mixed team event and in Tashkent they are likely to battle for the title with inaugural Olympic champions France.
Here’s an overview of who to look out for.
READ: How Chinese Taipei's first-ever judo Olympic medallist became a social media star
Times are local (GMT+5)
Preliminaries TBC, Final Block 17:00
Thursday 6 October 2022
Women’s -48kg, Men’s -60kg
Friday 7 October 2022
Women’s -52kg, Men’s -66kg
Saturday 8 October 2022
Women’s -57kg, Men’s -73kg
Sunday 9 October 2022
Women’s 63kg, Men’s -81kg
Monday 10 October 2022
Women’s 70kg, Men’s -90kg
Tuesday 11 October 2022
Women’s -78kg, Men’s -100kg
Wednesday 12 October 2022
Women’s +78kg, Men’s +100kg
Thursday 13 October 2022
Mixed Teams
Broadcast details will be published on the IJF website closer to the start of the event.