Budapest once again steps up to highest level

Exactly three years the World Championships took place in Budapest. With the Grand Slam in October Budapest will kick off the comeback of the IJF World Judo Tour. The Hungarian capital once again proved to have excellent relations and organising skills. In the heart of judo, in the host city of the IJF’s headquarters, the Grand Slam of Budapest is the first major event starting in October. Judo is back.

Having a European Open in 2013 Budapest was awarded a promotion in 2014 organising the Grand Prix belonging to the IJF’s major events. As organiser of excellent European Championships in 2013, Budapest has a reputation as top organiser. Hungarian Judo Federation President Laszlo Toth has tremendous relation in both EJU as IJF as well as commercial skills. Being supported for years by Hungarian bank OTP and having superb sporting venues, Budapest can hold it’s reputation as top sports city.

Top Sports in Hungary has always been very wide spread with a variety of sports that shone at Olympic Games level. Hungarian judo got a boost in 1992 when Antal Kovacs took the first Olympic title in Barcelona, the first and only judo title where sports as waterpolo and fencing have been dominant among many other sports. Judo though kept developing and Akos Braun and Antal Kovacs both won a World title and twelve athletes became European Champion, some even multiple times like Éva Csernoviczki, Bertalan Hajtós, Abigel Joo and Miklós Ungvári who even won three titles.

Introducing the Grand Prix in 2014 the hunger for major championships hadn’t finished and Budapest was given the organisation of the World Championships in 2017. Big stars showed their skills to the world in Budapest with new world titles for Hifumi Abe, Alexander Wieczerzak, Nemanja Majdov, Sumiya Dorjsuren and Sarah Asahina to name a few stars.

Since 2014 Hungary celebrated home titles at the Grand Prix for Éva Csernoviczki (2014), Miklós Ungvári (2015 and 2018) and Krisztian Toth (2016 and 2018), but President Laszlo Toth wants more.

From 2020 Budapest will host the Grand Slam, the first Grand Slam since the covid-19 outbreak that devastated sports, that postponed the Olympic Games. Sports can not be beaten and Budapest worked on organising an even bigger event, kept working on the relationships and made it possible to organise the first Grand Slam AC (after corona), or actually during corona as the circumstances will be tough with lots of measures led by the IJF protocol.

Tokyo will be the capital of judo at the end of the year and of course during the Olympic Games, Budapest will be the capital of judo end of October during the Grand Slam of Budapest.