Judo Pan American Open (June 21, 2024, Lima, Peru)
Saito Ryu
Photo by Sponichi
The final international tournament for the Paris Olympics this summer, which will determine the qualifiers and seeding, has been decided, with three athletes confirmed to participate in the men’s over 100kg class, in which Olympic representative Saito Ryu (JES Group) will compete, and the tournament will be held. As a result, Saito will be able to add points and move up one place to the 6th seed in the Olympics. This will allow him to achieve his goal of participating in an international tournament, which involves traveling more than 30 hours one way, one month before the actual event.
Saito was originally scheduled to head to his first Olympics after the international tournament in May, but his biggest rival, two-time Olympic champion Teddy Riner (France), competed in an international tournament two weeks ago. He was seeded higher than Saito, raising the possibility that he would be faced with a tougher matchup in the actual tournament.
The All Japan Judo Federation was considering how to respond to this situation, and decided to make an unusual dispatch as a strategic measure.
Following Saito’s entry, Riner, who would not be able to earn points by participating in this tournament according to the rules, also entered late, perhaps as a precaution. It was expected that the tournament would be contested by four people, including two players from the host country of Peru, but in the end Riner decided not to participate, and it was decided that it would be contested by three people, including Saito. The tournament will have a round-robin league format of three players, followed by a final between the top two.
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2024-06-21 07:47:25
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