Zagreb kicks off with first IJF Grand Prix

The Grand Prix of Zagreb is the first World Tour event after the Olympic Games. With 319 athletes from 40 different countries, respectively 186 men and 133 women, the Grand Prix can count to see a lot of new talent lining up for the qualification for Los Angeles, which is far away, so the first in Croatia a an excellent meeting to feel the bathwater for the upcoming stars of the future.

A few weeks have already passed since the Parisian craziness of the 2024 Olympic Games, a few weeks everyone has used to recover from an Olympic cycle that was intense and exciting. While the new cycle that will lead to the LA28 Games began the day after the closing ceremony of Paris 2024, the World Judo Tour is back in service this weekend in Zagreb, Croatia, for a first grand prix.

On Thursday first draw of this new era of ​​world judo took place. The Croatian Judo federation is once again frontrunner when it comes to organising perfect Games for talents and in this case to welcome the athletes in the IJF World Tour.

Croatian Federation Presdent Dr. Sanda Corak declared, "Good afternoon dear athletes, coaches, sport officials and media representatives, dear IJF colleagues, Mr Al Tamimi, Mr Barta and Mr Lascau, it is really a great pleasure to wish you all a warm welcome to the 11th edition of the IJF Grand Prix Zagreb, on behalf of the Croatian Judo Federation.

After an exciting Olympic Games in Paris, we are entering a new Olympic cycle and we are very glad that the first competition for new judoka to have the possibility of collecting IJF points is taking place here.

For us, for the federation, this was a challenging task after organising several important judo events, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who helped us, especially our Ministry of Tourism and Sport and the City of Zagreb, which supported this grand prix financially and of course all our generous sponsors and donors.

I hope that you will have some nice memories from this grand prix and that the whole event will be held in an atmosphere of mutual respect and friendship. I wish you all an enjoyable stay in Zagreb and the best of luck during the competition."

The event will start on Friday at 11:00 o’clock with the preliminaries on three mats. The final block will start traditionally at five in the afternoon.

Vladimir Barta, IJF Head Sport Director underlined the Croatian performance at the draw since Barbara Matic won gold: "First of all I would like to congratulate President Sanda Corak for the excellent and historic result at the Paris Olympics with the gold medal of Barbara Matic. This is amazing. I am happy to be here to share this with you. It was an excellent performance.“