Bag of World Champion stolen at Judo Championships in Cairo

Described by one competitor as "the worst ever" world championships, leaders of the International Judo Federation will now post mortem the four-day event in Cairo that ended Sunday. While Cairo organizers said Egyptian organizers said "everything is going smoothly", the championships at the Cairo National Stadium have come under fire for a range of issues.

There were complaints the hall was not cleaned since the start of competition. The warm-up area for athletes was termed "a dirty garage" in one report. The bag was stolen of World Champion Dennis van der Geest after the medal ceremony and many other bad things happened at this championship. The only left was the medal and judogi. Bag including passport was stolen.

Journalists covering the event had no power sockets and unstable internet connections. No media officer was present for the event.

Performers wearing shoes in the opening ceremony trod upon the competition mats, while one gold medalist complained that his gear bag had been stolen from the hall.

And on the last day of competition, there was a repeat of troubles that surfaced at the Athens Olympics between Iran and Israel.

An Iranian judokan admitted Sunday that he had lost a preliminary bout, on orders from the government in Tehran, to avoid fighting an Israel athlete in the next round. A similar incident marred the judo competition in Athens, leading to emergency meetings of the IJF in an attempt to resolve the sportsmanship issue.

Leaders of the IJF in Cairo were not able to be contacted for comment on the problems with the world championship problems.