October 28 is World Judo Day

Baku. 27 October. REPORT.AZ/ International Judo Federation (IJF) celebrates October 27 each year as World Judo Day.

Report informs, this is due to the fact that, founder of Judo Jigoro Kano, was born on 28 October.

At present, more than 20 million people in the world are practicing judo. The IJF, which incorporates 5 continental associations, includes 195 national federations.

The interest in judo in Azerbaijan is also great. Nazim Huseynov in 1992 and Elnur Mammadli in 2008 became Olympic champions. In 2013, Elkhan Mammadov became the first Azerbaijani world champion. Azerbaijani judo athletes have made great achievements in many international competitions, European championships, the Baku 2015 I European Games and "Baku 2017" IV Islamic Solidarity Games.

Over the past two years, Azerbaijani judokas have won medals at the prestigious Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the European Championships, Grand Slam tournament, the World Masters and the Grand Prix. In 2016, the national team for the first time in the judo history of Azerbaijan won the third place in the European Championship team competitions. In 2017, the national team won a gold medal in team competitions in European championships.