There were plenty of talks about the veteran tour last year. The talks are over, and all plans being put in action with official veteran events added to the EJU calendar. There are 7 additional events in a form of European Cups for this group to gather, compete and enjoy their love for judo.
To date, he calendar for 2024 as follows;
24-25 February European Cup Riga, Latvia
6-7 April European Cup Gyor, Hungary
20-21 April European Cup Warsaw, Poland
11-12 May European Cup Tbilisi, Georgia
6-9 June European Championships Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina
21-22 September European Cup Hamburg, Germany
28-29 September European Cup Birmingham, United Kingdom
26-27 October European Cup Jelsa (Hvar Island), Croatia
(TBC) November World Championships Las Vegas, USA
EJU Education Director, Ronnie SAEZ is thrilled to see all the work coming together;
Although veterans come under the sport sector, there is a collaboration between to ensure that these tournaments and the relevance of veteran judo activity is not lost. It still has beneficial effect in terms of persuading for more veterans to take up coaching and such.
I think the veteran judo is lot more than a sport event. It is a good lead, keeping people involved in judo, people who would leave judo at the end of their competitive career. There is an opportunity to try to encourage them to be coaches, referees, officials, so it gives us another opportunity to expend our work force and grow judo within Europe.
Let the tour begin!
Author: Szandra Szogedi