Amaechi Akawo, Secretary-General of Nigeria Judo Federation (NJF), says 210 judokas have registered for the maiden edition of the Japan Ambassador National Open Judo Championship.
Akawo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja that these judokas are drawn from 18 states and four clubs.
He said the event, slated to hold from Sunday to Thursday and which would be organised in collaboration with the federation, was aimed at discovering new talents.
Akawo said the competition would also feature judokas drawn from the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy and the para-military organs.
“We are also having judokas from schools such as the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, the University of Benin, among others,” the NJF secretary-general said.
He said the competition was open to all state judo associations and clubs, adding that the championship would also have the judokas competing in three categories of cadet, junior and senior.
“Our focus is in the junior category is to pick new talents and to build on the ones discovered at the National Youth Games (NYG) held in Ilorin in September.
“The federation is looking at using the championship to pick judokas for our national teams ahead of the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics,” he said.
Akawo said the federation was working closely with the Japanese Embassy to groom judokas to ensure that Nigerians feature in the sport at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He said the best overall team would get the Japan Ambassador award, the gold medal and a certificate of participation.
Speaking also on the championship, Bashir Bassey, an international coach, told NAN that the event would help to discover talents and revive the game in the country.
“This is the only competition for judokas in the country, apart from the NYG, and it is a good development,” he said.
Bassey however called for more of such championships to help the federation grow more young talents. (NAN)