Africa Judo Open-Tunis: Cameroon emerges 16th

Team Cameroon has been ranked 16 at the just ended Judo Africa open tournament in Tunis, Tunisia.

The judo African open tournament ended on Sunday in Tunis with Cameroon emerging 16th from among 24 participating countries.

Cameroon appeared on the podium twice with Wetie Diodjo Nadine emerging third in the +78kg category and Wezeu Dombeu Helene appearing on the 7th position in the -63kg category, a performance that enabled Cameroon to be classified in the 16th position.

However, the essence was not winning places on the podium but winning points to appear among the first thirty on the world classification in order to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games to take place in Rio de Janeiro later this year.

Cameroon took part in the competition with eleven athletes; nine home-based and two professionals based in France.

The men’s category saw Tsala Tsala Bernadin competing in the -60kg category, Joseph Hell Bapou in the -73 kg category, Messi Louis François in the -81kg, Dolassem Dieudonne in the -90 kg and Nji Mouluh Seidou.

In the women’s series, Bata Philomene went in for the -48kg category, Sitcheping Paule for the -57kg, Wezeu Dombeu for the -63kg, Arrey Sophina Ayuk Otay in the -70kg, Mballa Atangana Hortense in the -78kg, and Wetie Diodjo Nadine in the +78kg.

The qualifiers for the Olympic Games in judo will end on May 30 but before then, there will be other competitions to enable the athletes to grab points for qualification.

Prominent among them are the Grand Prix Havana to take place in Cuba, Grand slam of France, Test event Aquece Rio international tournament, Africa Open Casablanca, the African championship and a host of other tournaments.

According to the president of the Cameroon judo federation, Alain Kingue, the objective of Cameroon is to take part in many competitions as possible so as to improve on the classification of Cameroonian athletes since only the first 30 of the world ranking qualify for the games, that is, the first 22 boys and the first 14 girls. After which only the first of each continent qualifies for the world event.