Olympic Selection Nightmares Japan +100kg

In the run-up to Tokyo Olympics two nations ended up with very high profile domestic rivalries, that played out on the world stage. At -66kg Olympic hosts Japan held a fight off between their world champions Abe and Maruyama. At -57kg Canada let their judoka Klimkait and DeGuchi resolve the race to qualify at the Budapest World Championships.

Over the next 14 weeks the podcast is going to run a mini-series, looking at some of the selection nightmares that nations are going to face and resolve in the run-up to the Paris Olympics.

This week I’m on my own, so thought I’d delve into the Olympic selection nightmare thats already been resolved. In August Japanese Olympic Committee announced several athletes had already been selected for Paris Games next year, and one of the athletes selected was Tatsuru Saito at +100kg, over his rival Kokoro Kageura. Whilst Saito is ahead on the ranking list, Kageura has a world title to his name, as well as a victory over Teddy Riner in front of a Paris crowd, both accolades firsts for Japanese judoka since 2010.

Let me know what you think, should Saito have been given the nod, or should selectors have waited, giving Kageura more time to find form this Olympic cycle.

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