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Hifumi Abe chosen for the 2023 Olympic Games

Hifumi Abe chosen for the 2023 Olympic Games

29 Jun 2023 23:45
by JudoInside and L'Esprit du Judo
JudoInside.com - Hans van Essen / judo news, results and photos

The day after its change of president, Japanese judo, faithful to its strategy of early choice for major international events, has just announced, more than a year in advance, the first four names selected for the Paris Olympics , in 2024: they are Natsumi Tsunoda in U48kg, Uta Abe in U52kg, Sakii Niizoe in U70kg and Hifumi Abe in U66kg.

Three of them are the current world champions and won the titles in Tashkent in 2022 and Doha in 2023. Niizoe had won bronze in Uzbekistan before being crowned in Doha mid-May.

The selections of Tsunoda and Uta Abe are perfectly logical. They have no real national rivals and have proven an ability to beat all the best foreigners in their category. One could think that the rivalry between the two best U66kg in the planet for six years would perhaps push the selection committee to wait and see at least until the Tokyo Grand Slam? Whether Abe's leadership would resist attempts to challenge Maruyama. In the end, nothing because the raw results will have weighed decisively in this category. Retroactively, we can say that the defeat of the genius of Tenri in the final of Doha after a very questionable arbitration will therefore have weighed heavily, according to L'Esprit du Judo.