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The first International Judo Federation (IJF) Grand Slam of the year will take place in Paris, at one of the most traditional venues of the sport – the Palais Omnisport Bercy. The tournament takes place February 6th-7th.

The competition is held since 1971 (under the name of Tournoi de Paris) and in its 36th edition, the event will receive over 400 athletes from around 50 countries and representing all five continents, showing once again how democratic is judo as sport.

The French Team will feature Teddy Riner, world ranking leader and who has just won the IJF Masters in Korea in the heavy-weight, Olympic runner-up Lucie Decosse, world ranking leader and IJF Masters champion Celine Lebrun, Olympic runner-up Benjamin Darbelet showing up in a new weight division (73kg) and other, in a total of 52 athletes. As home team, the French are allowed to have four athletes per category, which is not only be the case for 81kg (3 judoka) and 90kg (1 judoka).

Japan and Russia, two countries who share with France the best results of the first IJF World Circuit (2009) also come to Paris with its full force: the Nippon team will have 24 representatives, while Russia comes with 23. Germany (21), Brazil (17), Algeria (16), Korea (16) and the Netherlands (16) are the countries with the highest number of entries in the event, what proofs how tough will be the fights. The majority of world ranking leaders, world medalists and winners of the previous IJF Grand Slams will step on the mat in Paris for two days of full action and beautiful ippons.

“We had already two world cups this year. One in Sofia, for woman, and the other in Tblisi, for men. In Bulgaria we reached the great mark of 73% ippon, which is high for female contests, while in Georgia the average of waza-ari/ippon together goes up to 95%. With the new rules and understanding of the nations we are bringing the judo back to its origin”, says IJF Refereeing Director Mr. Juan Carlos Barcos. “Even Eastern European countries, who are known for its judo with leg grabs showed that they can really do the sport and win. We are happy that judo is more dynamic”, adds Mr. Barcos.

Competition starts at 10AM with qualifiers, with the final block being held at 16PM every day, followed by award ceremony. The IJF Grand Slam shares US$ 150.000 prize money among the medalist, who also earn points for the world ranking list: 300 for gold, 180 for silver, 120 for bronze.

After the jump checkout a video from last month's Suwon World Masters 2010 (+100kg) finals from Korea. Two time World Champion and World #1 rank Tedy Rinner (64-7) from France meets the World #7 ranked Japanese judoka Kenji Suzuki (67-10).