Gabon Dominates African Judo Referee Ranking: Djimbi Named Best African Referee of 2023

The African Judo UNION (AUJ), the umbrella body for judo at the continental level, recently published its annual ranking of the best referees on the continent. Gabon, our country, takes the lion’s share by placing two of its ambassadors in the Top 3 of this ranking. Thus, for the second year in a row, our compatriot Jean-Claude Djimbi is named best African referee of the year 2023 ahead of the Senegalese Fary Seye and the Gabonese Georges Éric Nkoma, new African number three. Another Gabonese appears in this ranking.

This is Michel Ngome Ndong, who occupies 61st place out of 73 referees. A great recognition for Gabonese arbitration! Despite his first place at the African level, Jean-Claude Djimbi lost points at the world level. Which could of course compromise its chances of participating in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. What are the reasons? “Coming out of my 19th place after the Budapest Masters in Hungary, last August, due to lack of financial means, I was unable to go to the African Championships in September, to the Dakar Open and Yaoundé while these competitions were included in my program for the Paris 2024 qualifications. As a result, I lost three places in the world ranking and I now find myself in 22nd place.

Despite everything, I am satisfied to occupy this first place”, informs Jean-Claude Djimbi. The Olympics are coming at high speed, it is absolutely necessary to get back to the qualifying places. And this naturally involves participation in the latest international competitions. “In a few weeks will be held the refereeing seminar of the International Judo Federation post-Paris Olympics. But due to lack of funding I risk not taking part. Worse, the following weekend, I have two competitions. We ask to be accompanied by our sports authorities because I am obliged to work extra hard to obtain my second qualification as a judo referee.” Mr Georges Éric Nkoma, he too is satisfied with this ranking which, for him, is “the fruit of a personal investment put into the service of Gabonese judo for a decade”. Better still, he wishes to pass the torch on to the next generations.

Willy NDONG

Libreville/Gabon

2024-01-05 13:20:08
#JudoArbitrage #JeanClaude #Djimbi #African #number #year