Judo, Azzurri flying to Tokyo: the qualified, the curiosities and the program

At 17.30 this afternoon the Italian judo team took off from Fiumicino with the plane that will take it to Tokyo for the Olympics. The delegation is made up of the athletes Francesca Milani, Odette Giuffrida, Maria Centracchio, Alice Bellandi, Manuel Lombardo, Fabio Basile, Christian Parlati, Nicholas Mungai, the technical director Kiyoshi Murakami with the technicians Dario Romano, Francesco Bruyere, Raffaele Toniolo, Doctor Stefano Bonagura and the physio Marco Chittaro. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games are therefore about to begin and on Saturday 24 July, the day after the opening ceremony, the first medals in judo will already be awarded. In fact, the athletes of the lighter categories will climb on the Budokan mats: the female 48 kg and the male 60 kg. The competitions will then continue at the rate of two categories per day until Saturday 31 July with the mixed team tournament, which will award the first Olympic team judo medal. Below is the useful information to follow the judo event.

Numbers and curiosities

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In Tokyo, 129 nations will compete (32 Africa, 42 Europe, 27 Asia, 6 Oceania, 22 Pan America, 1 Olympic Refugee Team) with 393 athletes: 366 qualified according to the World Ranking List, of which 266 direct qualification and 100 continental quota, 20 universal quota athletes, 6 refugees, and an extra quota seat for Saudi Arabia (+ 78kg). Judo is at its 15th appearance at the Olympic Games for men (starting from Tokyo 1964) and eighth for women (since Barcelona 1992), plus Seoul 1988 as a demonstration sport. It is the first time ever that the last day of competition will be dedicated to the mixed team event, the first overall of the discipline in an Olympic competition: 12 teams competing, including that of the host nation and that of the Olympic Refugee. In Tokyo, gender equality will be respected for the first time in judo, with the same number of men and women qualified for the Games. The small final numerical difference (200 men, 193 women) was determined by the 20 places assigned with the universality criterion. From 1964 to today, 55 nations from the five continents have won medals at the Olympic Games and the ranking finds Japan in first place with 84 medals, France second with 82, South Korea third with 43.

The program

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From Saturday 24 July to Saturday 31 July 2 categories per day will go up on the tatamis of the Budokan in Tokyo: at 11:00 (04:00 in Italian night) the preliminaries, at 17:00 (10:00 in the Italian morning) the block of finals and awards.

DAY 1
Saturday 24 July: -48 kg F tatami 1, -60 kg M tatami 2. Azzurri in the competition: Francesca Milani.
DAY 2
Sunday 25 July: -52 kg F tatami 2, -66 kg M tatami 1. Azzurri in the competition: Odette Giuffrida, Manuel Lombardo.
DAY 3
Monday 26 July: -57 kg F tatami 1, -73 kg M tatami 2. Azzurri in the competition: Fabio Basile.
DAY 4
Tuesday 27 July: -63 kg F tatami 2, -81 kg M tatami 1. Azzurri in the competition: Maria Centracchio, Christian Parlati.
DAY 5
Wednesday, July 28: -70 kg F tatami 1, -90 kg M tatami 2. Azzurri in the race: Alice Bellandi, Nicholas Mungai.
DAY 6
Thursday 29 July: -78 kg F tatami 2, -100 kg M tatami 1.
DAY 7
Friday 30 July: +78 kg F tatami 1, +100 kg M tatami 2.
DAY 8
Saturday 31 July: Mixed team event. Italy competing with Francesca Milani, Odette Giuffrida (57), Maria Centracchio (70), Alice Bellandi (+70), Manuel Lombardo, Fabio Basile (73), Christian Parlati (90), Nicholas Mungai (+90).