tournament
Julian Drew Judo
With 28 countries entered in the tournament, judo was one of the better represented sports on the All Africa Games programme, but, as with most of the 20 sports codes at the games, there were few people to witness the trials and tribulations of participants.
The odd sprinkling of local judokas who took advantage of a rare opportunity to see top-class international competition on their own door-step were far outnumbered by other competitors cheering on their team mates. Empty seats outnumbered them all, however.
The standard of judo in Africa is high in comparison to many sports and the tournament provided plenty of excitement and high-quality combat.
Henry Wessels, who is probably South Africa’s top male judoka, was a joy to behold in his half-lightweight campaign (under 66kg).
Unfortunately his division also belongs to Africa’s top judoka, Amar Meridja of Algeria, who finished seventh at the last world championships. Wessels drew Meridja in the second round in a bout worthy of the final.
He gave the Algerian an almighty fright as he threw him to score a waza-ari, which is just short of an ippon – the equivalent of a knockout in boxing. The tough little Benoni fighter was ahead on points with less than a minute remaining when Meridja drew on his considerable experience to throw Wessels and score an ippon.
Wessels quickly put the disappointment behind him to fight his way through the repechage and record a stunning win in the bronze medal final, throwing Egypt’s Mohamed Dawah with his favourite side shoulder throw (kata-guruma) to score an ippon after just 35 seconds.
Although the tournament will be remembered for the class of judo on show there were also some absurd moments which added colour and, sadly, farce to the competition.
In the semi-finals of the men’s lightweight (under 73kg) the bout between Senegal’s Cheikh Wade and Egypt’s Haitham Awad was stopped while the referee and judges examined something that Wade had wrapped around his forearm.
It turned out to be a juju charm and because it was deemed to be a hard object that could harm his opponent, he was disqualified. Experienced judge Pat Warren from Zimbabwe said it was the first time she had come across somebody being disqualified for wearing juju in judo.
In the open division where judokas from any weight category can enter, the women’s semi-finals saw a classic encounter between Egypt’s 140kg behemoth Heba Hefny and Tunisia’s 62kg half- middleweight Nesria Traki.
The brave Tunisian tried all in her powers to throw her opponent. In the sheer weight of the moment, as Traki hoisted the hefty Hefny over her shoulder, her legs collapsed beneath her and they both fell in an ungainly heap with Traki sustaining a knee injury which hampered her for the rest of the bout.
The final day of competition was reduced to a farce when the medal finals session was delayed nearly two hours. The referees and judges refused to officiate because the games organising committee had failed, for the fourth day in a row, to pay their daily $40 stipend.
With the judokas all psyched up and ready to fight, the crowd was left wondering what was happening as South African judo officials raced from Nasrec to the village in Alexandra and back to collect the money and try and save the day. The only plus point was the excellent music that kept the crowd entertained during the long wait. From Senegal’s Youssou N’Dour and Egypt’s Mohamed Foued to South Africa’s Sibongile Khumalo, there was a song for everyone.
President of the African Judo Union General Palenfo from Cte d’Ivoire, said: “This is totally unacceptable. Everybody is leaving tomorrow and if the referees didn’t take this course of action they would never have been paid.”
At least the winners had anthems to go with their medal ceremonies on the last day.
On previous days their team mates had had to sing for them.
The flags that arrived with the tapes remained unused, however. There was nowhere to hoist them.