Eleven different countries take gold at Oceania Open in Perth

Perth in Australia is not often the focal point for world judo but right now more than 300 judoka from 64 countries were gathered in Western Australia for the Perth Open, the only event in Oceania offering World Judo Tour points towards Olympic qualification. The HBF Stadium received 300 judoka from 64 countries.

Last year the event was upgraded to offer points equal to those of a grand prix, in the spirit of fair play, to offer athletes from the local continent a more efficient and cost effective route to both development and podium, with high level judo far closer to home than it normally is. Throughout the Olympic cycle the Oceania athletes have to travel to the more densely populated European events or those in Asia and Pan America, in order to meet the demanding criteria for Olympic selection. It is not easy and so the Perth Open is a very welcome calendar entry.

The relaxed culture means there is always a nice feeling at those events. For our Australian judoka, this tournament gives them a chance to earn points that are an essential buffer when for the rest of the year they are hit so hard with the budget required to travel. We therefore have a large number of home athletes competing here and that has a knock on effect, feeding into the development of judo in Western Australia and the country as a whole.

The quality of the event is not in doubt; simply looking at the day 1 results is enough to cement that statement. At -60kg the gold went to Olympic silver medallist and former world number one Yung Wei Yang (TPE) while at -57kg the final was played out between World Judo Masters medallist Mimi Huh (KOR) and double world medallist Nekoda Davis (GBR).

With Maria Perez winning the women’s U70kg against Miriam Buttkereit, the level is higher than ever not even speaking about the women’s U78kg with fresh double European Champion Alina Boehm on the podium, but the winner was Giorgia Stangherlin of Italy. The team of China is extremely strong in the women’s class and won the heavyweight division. Italy was also strong in the men’s U81kg where Jack Gamba captured the gold medal. It was an all Brazilian final U100kg won by Leonardo Goncalves.