With participants arriving to Győr in their droves, quite literally thousands in fact, will travel to the Hungarian city in 2024. The first event took place a few weekends ago with the IJF Coaching and Refereeing Seminar whilst this weekend, for the first time, Győr will host an Olympic qualifying event in judo. Győr has always played a major role in Hungarian judo, especially in the last two and a half decades. Former competitor of Győr Dózsa SE, Dr. TÓTH László has been the president of the Hungarian Judo Association since 1998, and has also been the president of the European Judo Union since 2021.
The Mayor of Győr, Dr. Dézsi Csaba Andrá addressed the Audi Arena first,
Dear President, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our wonderful city, it is a great pleasure for us to host this wonderful competition, I wish the competitors injury free fights and good luck!
Following the Mayor, President Toth continues,
Dear Csaba, Mayor of the city Győr, ladies and gentlemen, judo family, on behalf of the European Judo Union I would like to congratulate the organisation of Hungarian Judo and European Judo Union. I would like to give special thanks to Győr, I am also from here and thank you very much to those visiting us from four continents, I wish you a successful competition, I declare the Győr European Open, open!
President Toth then issued the European Judo City Award. Speaking about the event and his home city, Toth spoke with EJU Commentator, SZOGEDI Szandra,
I am so happy that so many nations selected this competition, it was quite a surprise as we are lying between two big competitions, Paris and Baku Grand Slams, so I am happy that there was such a big interest. We had a very successful IJF Refereeing and Coaching Seminar, we will continue with a Cadet European Cup and following that, the U15 event. We know very well judo, and this city can organise wonderful events, and we can look at EYOF, we really had a terrific event then and judo really improved since then.
Not only was I born here and started judo here, but Gyor is a central location in Europe, between Vienna and Budapest and then Bratislava is not so far, this is important for our participants, also the Vice President gives great support to us.
It is important for EJU and the Hungarian Judo Association but we really want to thank all the nations that have come here to join us. We want to promote our media work and what we can provide to these nations, all medallists will receive a package of the ‘journey to their medal’. To all of those starting their competition season with us, thank you.
Author: Thea Cowen