Israel to host World Judo Championships for first time
The location also symbolic of the cooperation between Israel and Qatar.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFJudo - World Judo Championships - Men's Under 81 kg - Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan - August 28, 2019 - Israel's Sagi Muki and Kyrgyzstan's Vladimir Zoloev compete(photo credit: REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON)
Israel will host the World Judo Championships for the first time ever in 2024 or 2025, Israel Hayom reported Friday. The competition will be hosted in Tel Aviv, either before the 2024 Olympic Games or in the following year.The timing is also symbolic of the cooperation between Israel and Qatar, according to Israel Hayom. The competition will be held in Qatar in the year before it is held in Israel so that Israeli athletes compete in Qatar, and the following year, Qatari athletes compete in Israel.This decision by the International Judo Federation follows three successful Judo competitions hosted in Israel recently one of which during the coronavirus pandemic, Israel Hayom reported. The competition hosted during the pandemic was successful due to no cases of coronavirus infection reported following the competition and with the historic participation of Iranian Judo champion Saeid Mollaei.Mollaei, a 2018 judo world champion, fled Iran for Germany after saying Iranian authorities had put pressure on him to drop out of the 2019 world championships in Tokyo to avoid a potential final round against Israeli contender Sagi Muki.Iran, which has refused to recognize Israel since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, was banned indefinitely from international judo competition after the Mollaei incident.Reuters contributed to this report.
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