Paris Grand Slam World Tour opening with new judo rules

This weekend the IJF World Tour will be launched, which is the first step on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The season-launching Paris tournament will see the implementation of a host of rules evolution as the sport continues to move forward.

Paris is one of five annual IJF Grand Slams held in Baku, Yekaterinburg, Abu Dhabi and Tokyo. A new set of simplified rules has been designed to make the sport easier to understand for non-judoka and the media and to make the sport dynamic.

Paris is the fourth tournament where the new rules are used. The season opening was in Tunis at the African Open in January followed by the European Open in Lisbon and Sofia last week.

IJF president Marius Vizer: “We are introducing our new rules for the first time at an IJF event in Paris and we hope they will benefit all areas of our sport including media coverage, viewing figures and attendances at live events. The IJF continues to be committed to our many ongoing projects such as Judo for Children, self-defence, Army and Police, and these will all be advanced over the coming years. I wish you all a lot of success in Paris and a nice stay in France.”

IJF Head Refereeing Director Juan Carlos Barcos presented the rules changes to the crowd of referees, coaches, delegations, and media one final time before they are adopted on Saturday. “Paris is already a very important event in our sport and takes on even greater significance this year as we use the new set of rules.”

French Judo Federation President Jean-Luc Rouge said: “We will have 11,000 spectators on Saturday and 12,000 on Sunday and look forward to presenting a great event.”