It is a jaw dropping weekend in Venray as individuals with different level of abilities gather with one common goal, to do judo. The EJU Get Together event impressed many, including Senior Vice President of the EJU, Mr Otto KNEITINGER.
First of all, I would like to convey greetings from our president, Dr Toth Laszlo. Openly speaking, this is the first time in my life watching adaptive judo. I am so impressed, it is lamentable that I have not realised in the past 40 years, since I am involved in judo, what is possible and what is needed. What we can give these individuals via judo is much more than any Olympic medals.
People like Rudi Verhagen has been doing an incredible work past decades and now we are pleased to be in support of this projects. This weekend is the foundation of a brighter future for adaptive judo, and I am grateful for the team, including Marina Draskovic and EJU Vice President, leader of the Education sector, Mr Sergei Aschwanden, who worked hard to wheel several plans into reality.
I am truly impressed, 300 judoka from 25 countries. It makes me very proud to be here this weekend. It is a weekend to remember in the history of judo.
The mayor of Venray, Michiel UITDEHAAG has also joined in admiration.
I have just been to the dojo and boys and girls are here from all over the world. It is really a pleasure that they all decided to come here for this tournament. Of course, it is an honour, as the Mayor of Venray, to have everyone here in our city as well as hosting this first edition of EJU Get Together event. We are honoured to have international representatives joining this project from this year, both from EJU and IJF. I would like to say that inclusivity in sport worldwide, not only in judo, is important and very beneficial. As a mayor I hope other sport will follow this example.
Author: Szandra Szogedi