A hundred judokas from Mainland Tanzania and Isles will take part in this year’s Zanzibar Budokan Toyota Judo Cup at Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar on Sunday.
According to organisers Zanzibar Judo Association (ZJA), the one-day event, which is a weight category national championship, will be used to select judokas who will form the national team for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
“A hundred judokas from 10 clubs in Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar will take part in the championship and they will battle in 10 categories — seven for men and three for women,” ZJA said in a statement.
The winners of the competition sponsored by Toyota Tanzania, which is scheduled to commence in the morning and its finals to be held at noon, will be presented medals and cash prizes.
The winners of various categories will grab gold medals, certificates and 300,000/- and the first runners-up will get silver medals, certificates plus 200,000/- while the second runners-up will collect bronze medals, certificates and 100,000/-.
Earlier in July, ZJA organised the National Judo Championship held at the Budokan Hall in Zanzibar which was also among the competitions for selecting the national team ahead of the Commonwealth Games.
ZJA has been organising the championship every year for more than 10 years in a bid to motivate the judokas and promote the standard of Judo in the country.
Judo is a modern martial art, combat and Olympic sport created in Japan and its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the objective is to either throw or takedown an opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue an opponent with a pin, or force an opponent to submit with a joint lock or a choke.
Strikes and thrusts by hands and feet as well as weapons defences are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (Kata) and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice.
Source Tanzania Daily News