What can we expect from the judo year 2023? “2022 was a great year from the ÖJV point of view, but of course it could be even better. We have a lot planned for the next few months. Both in the general class and in the juniors, we speculate with further increases in performance – ie more medals,” say ÖJV Secretary General Corina Korner, head coach Yvonne Snir-Bönisch, sports director Markus Moser and President Martin Poiger in unison. On average, there is a national or international judo event every third day. At the EJU and IJF level, 116 dates are waiting – from the training camp to junior tournaments to the Grand Slam tournaments, Masters, European and World Championships. We provide a brief overview:
The absolute highlight of the season is from May 7th to 14th, when the World Championships in the general class (7 women’s and 7 men’s weight classes, mixed team competition) are on the agenda in Doha (QAT). 2,000 world ranking counters and 1,000 points for Olympic qualification await the winners.
Further highlights: the IJF Masters from August 4th to 6th in Budapest (HUN) and the European Championships in Montpellier (FRA/November 3rd – 5th). The World Tour includes a total of 12 tournaments, namely 8 Grand Slams (4/5 February: Paris/FRA, 17 – 19 February: Tel Aviv/ISR, 3 – 5 March: Tashkent/UZB, 24 – 26 March .: Tbilisi/GEO, March 31 – April 2: Antalya (TUR), June 23 – 25: Ulaanbaatar (MGL), September 22 – 24: Baku (AZE), December 2/3: Tokyo (JPN)) as well as 4 Grand Prix tournaments, above all the Upper Austrian GP from May 25th to 27th in Linz (in addition: January 27th to 29th: Almada/POR, June 2nd to 4th: Dushanbe/TJK, June 18th to 20/8: Zagreb/CRO.
The Austrian Junior European Cup will be held in Graz on July 15th and 16th. After that, a 3-day short training camp is planned.
The start of the judo year 2023 is traditionally the Olympic Training Camp in Salzburg’s Mittersill from January 9th to 17th. 800 judoka and 350 supervisors from 45 nations are expected. Host Austria has the largest delegation with 86 participants.
