Olympic Qualifiers: Judo Lions leave for Tunis

They are to take part in the Africa Open which offers qualification points for the Rio Olympics.

Some nine athletes of the judo national team accompanied by two trainers will leave the country today for Tunis to take part in the Africa Open tournament which serves as qualification for the Olympic Games this year in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil. They will be joined by two professionals from France. According to the president of the Cameroon judo federation, Alain Kingue, the preparation has been good as the athletes went into camp on time and the ministry of sports and Physical education gave them the necessary resources.

More so, he said Cameroon had been preparing for the competition since November and the athletes are in good shape. He said their ambition will be to go as far as possible in the competition and grab points necessary for qualification for the Olympic Games. The judo team is well ahead of the beginning of the competition on January 17th so as to get acquainted to the climate before the beginning of hostilities.

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. As of now most Cameroonian are in the forties on the world classification hence the need to gain about twenty places on the classification sheet so as to qualify for the global sports jamboree.

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

Meanwhile the federation has adopted its calendar of activities for the 2016 sports season. According to the programme, the new season will be launched on March 13 with a criterium for minors under the age of 12. The programme also provides for several training opportunities for athletes, referees and trainers, the hosting of the Yaounde International Judo tournament, board meetings and several national and international competitions.

However, the high point of the season will be the elective general assembly slated for December 17th since this happens to be the last year of the Olympiad.