For the fourth time Poreč was host city of the Judo Festival from 10th – 23rd of June. Event organized by European Judo Union in collaboration with Croatian Judo Federation gathered more than 1500 judokas from 45 different countries.
One of the biggest European Judo events consisted from eight different programs, of course the most participated one was the OTC. At the training camp participated more than 450 competitors, which was really surprising for LOC as European Games were really close. How much is important good and quality fights only proofs the number of participants who came at the OTC. During the OTC also was held Coach & Referee session, which consisted from practical and theory part.
Big novelty was Special Needs Seminar which lasted two days with experts such as Marina Drašković, winner of the award #BeInlusive by European Union.
“There are very special moments and we enjoy in every chance to work with kids. For some of them this is their first travel without the parents, they are progressing from day to day. I’m very proud to be part of such judo camps and give them one more reason to smile”. – said Barbara Matić who spent some time after her training accompanied by Majlinda Kelmendi, Lukas Krpalek and Tina Trstenjak.
Besides OTC and Cadet training camp, important part of the Festival is scientific part. Judo Symposium and Scientific conference gathered more than 45 scientists in Poreč, which was sixt symposium and fifth conference in total.
The presented research has shown the breadth of scientists’ works, from the psychological aspects of comparing the modern concept of Judo with the original ideas of Jigoro Kano, to the problem of knee ligament injury and anthropological features and their correlation with the results in the competitive part of the career.
EJU Improve your club is one of the popular one among Croatian coaches. Paralel with all other activities at the Festival, Improve your club was held from 15-16 June. The European Judo Union (EJU) believes that training and development of judo club trainers should be given as much attention as dedicated to national team coaches. National judo clubs are the starting point of national teams in each federation, so it is crucial to educate club coaches. South East Europe will further enhance the professionalism and preparation of coaches of numerous judo clubs, while not ignoring national selection coaches.
“I would like to thank to Croatian Judo Federation for hospitality and organization, which is this year as well on high level. Fourth times we are already here and one more time it’s confirmed that the location is great, which has great conditions for training, spending time with friends and to relax.” – Ezio Gamba opened with the speech during EJU Administration & Organisation seminar in Poreč.
For the first time, EJU Administration & Organisation seminar was held in Poreč, transition from Vienna to Poreč showed as a really good idea as National Federation representatives also had opportunity to visit Festival more closely.
As a part of Judo Festival, Croatian Judo Federation had annual congress, which was visited by the EJU President Sergey Soloveychik.
“You should be all proud at the effort you did to make it Judo Festival happen. This festival is a real proof why European Judo Union is the most progressive Union under the IJF.”
President Soloveychik added for the end: “I wish all Croatian Judokas a lot of sports luck. CJF deserves Olympic medal, hopefully that will happen in Tokyo and that it will be gold one.”
Once more Croatian Judo Federation had a big task in front of them, especially as the number of participants grew up +350. Sun, beach and fun, this is all about Poreč.
by Mario Krvavac
