Judo has never been afraid to tinker with the sport in order to make it viewer friendly. However what happened at the Grand Slam Duesseldorf was very peculiar.
At the Heavyweight Final a ref decided to basically DQ both competitors effectively meaning they both got silver medals?!
The IJF called the outcome a worldwide first but offered no further comment:
“The IJF Supervisors and our team deemed that this contest and the way it unfolded was unacceptable,” said IJF head referee director Juan Carlos Barcos to CNN.
“There was no intention to fight from either judoka and with the recently amended rules we can now reprimand two judoka in this way.
“This is what we decided as there was no judoka worthy of winning in the +100kg final.”“It is against the spirit of judo to turn up and not fight,” explained Sheldon Franco-Rooks, official commentator of the IJF.
“Neither fighter has demonstrated the desire to compete here. So the referee has said ‘OK, if you’re not going to fight, you’re both off.
“There will be no gold medal awarded in this contest; they’ll both get silver. They’ve both been disqualified. If you haven’t come here to fight, off you go. That’s it.”
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