Cuban judokas aim high in World Cup

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 2 (ACN) With their sights set on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, eight Cuban judokas will strive to rise in the world ranking when they participate in the World Judo Championships, to be held on June 6 thru 13 in Budapest, Hungary.

The competition will grant the last points for the list of 18 athletes—one per country in each of the 14 categories (men’s and women’s)—that will get the ticket for the Olympics, rescheduled as a result of the pandemic.

The qualifiers will feature an individual tournament on June 6 to 12 and a mixed team tournament on the 13th. All in all there will be also 386 judoka in competition, some to improve or maintain their positions in the Olympic ranking, others to try and enter the list.

Leading the eight Cubans (four women and four men) are Idalis Ortiz, first in the over 78 kg division, and Iván Silva, fifth in the 90 kg division.

According to the International Federation's website (www.ijf.org), Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Mongolia, Holland, South Korea and Russia are the 10 countries with all six categories covered, while Austria, Belgium, Cuba, Georgia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan are yet to the 10 countries with one pending category.

The organizers of the 2021 World Judo Championships expect the presence of 706 judoka—415 men and 291 women—from 132 nations.