Judo IJF Asian/Pacific Championships 2019

Totallympics · April 19, 2019

Judo IJF Asian/Pacific Championships 2019

Fujairah (UAE) - 20 April 2019 - 23 April 2019

Official Website

MHSN · April 19, 2019

for the first time, we will have Asia Pacific Judo Championships !! I didn't know that until today when I was checking the draw !! I don't know if it was just for this year or more.

and for Iran, the sad news is World Champion and World Rank 1 Saeid Mollaei is not participating here. he is disappeared in past month, never talked to media. and nobody knows what's his plan. I'm not going into details, our judo was always like a circus and now his biggest enemy (Arash Miresmaeili, two time world champion, Mollaei is only the 2nd Iranian world judo champion after him) is elected as the Iran Judo Federation president last month and 10 minutes after the election, the national team coach and manager announced their resignation. right after winning the World title, Mollaei bashed MIresmaeili in TV (who was the national team manager for few years and Mollaei had serious problems with him) and now Miresmaeili is the president, Mollaei apparently doesn't want to participate for "him" ! as I said I don't know what's his plan, Miresmaeili is not going anywhere for the next 4 years. I see only 3 options for him, solving his problems, retiring from Judo or representing another country he was quiet since the election, that makes me believe he is probably thinking about the 3rd option :mad:

JoshMartini007 · April 19, 2019

21 minutes ago, MHSN said:

for the first time, we will have Asia Pacific Judo Championships !! I didn't know that until today when I was checking the draw !! I don't know if it was just for this year or more.

and for Iran, the sad news is World Champion and World Rank 1 Saeid Mollaei is not participating here. he is disappeared in past month, never talked to media. and nobody knows what's his plan. I'm not going into details, our judo was always like a circus and now his biggest enemy (Arash Miresmaeili, two time world champion, Mollaei is only the 2nd Iranian world judo champion after him) is elected as the Iran Judo Federation president last month and 10 minutes after the election, the national team coach and manager announced their resignation. right after winning the World title, Mollaei bashed MIresmaeili in TV (who was the national team manager for few years and Mollaei had serious problems with him) and now Miresmaeili is the president, Mollaei apparently doesn't want to participate for "him" ! as I said I don't know what's his plan, Miresmaeili is not going anywhere for the next 4 years. I see only 3 options for him, solving his problems, retiring from Judo or representing another country he was quiet since the election, that makes me believe he is probably thinking about the 3rd option

Is this considered the continental championships for both Asia and Oceania?

MHSN · April 19, 2019

Just now, JoshMartini007 said:

Is this considered the continental championships for both Asia and Oceania?

I don't know. the logo says "Asian Pacific Championship" ! :mumble:

http://www.ippon.org/jua_oju_sen2019.php

phelps · April 19, 2019

1 hour ago, JoshMartini007 said:

Is this considered the continental championships for both Asia and Oceania?

I think it is, because looking at the IJF calendar in 2019 there are no Asian nor Oceania Champs standalone... :mumble:

p.s. sad story, the Mollaei situation...

hopefully, he's not going to represent Azerbaijan, if he wants to compete in Tokyo (he'd be totally outside the required times with his new Nation and I don't think Miraesmaili would give him permission to start for your Neighbours, if there's such a feud between them)...

Edited April 19, 2019 by phelps

MHSN · April 19, 2019

19 minutes ago, phelps said:

I think it is, because looking at the IJF calendar in 2019 there are no Asian nor Oceania Champs standalone...

p.s. sad story, the Mollaei situation...

hopefully, he's not going to represent Azerbaijan, if he wants to compete in Tokyo (he'd be totally outside the required times with his new Nation and I don't think Miraesmaili would give him permission to start for your Neighbours, if there's such afeud between them)...

I don't know anything about requirement for switching nationality in Judo. one thing is for sure, Iranian federations never ever give permission for that. but I know you still can do that without permission, it will just take more time. but we had a bad record in Judo. I can name 4-5 national team members doing that in past. the last one was the 2017 Asian silver medalist "Mohammad Rashnonejad" who is (as far as I know) still waiting for his papers to represent his new country the Netherlands. but none of them was as important as Mollaei.

right after what happened in Paris (the Israel story) Mollaei said something about "if they don't consider him he has options from other countries" I assume by considering he was talking about the prize money. and now with Miresmaeili in office I think he is really considering it. (that's just my guess but I knew from the previous experience when someone goes completely silent he has a plan that people won't like it ) and in his instagram he posted a pic with his fiance/girlfriend who is obviously not Iranian. it seems it will be somewhere in Western Europe

phelps · April 19, 2019

14 minutes ago, MHSN said:

I don't know anything about requirement for switching nationality in Judo. one thing is for sure, Iranian federations never ever give permission for that. but I know you still can do that without permission, it will just take more time. but we had a bad record in Judo. I can name 4-5 national team members doing that in past. the last one was the 2017 Asian silver medalist "Mohammad Rashnonejad" who is (as far as I know) still waiting for his papers to represent his new country the Netherlands. but none of them was as important as Mollaei.

right after what happened in Paris (the Israel story) Mollaei said something about "if they don't consider him he has options from other countries" I assume by considering he was talking about the prize money. and now with Miresmaeili in office I think he is really considering it. (that's just my guess but I knew from the previous experience when someone goes completely silent he has a plan that people won't like it ) and in his instagram he posted a pic with his fiance/girlfriend who is obviously not Iranian. it seems it will be somewhere in Western Europe

the problem wouldn't be about regular judo events (I'm not sure, but I think they're happy with a short break from the last appearance with the former Country)...

it would be for the Olympics...the IOC has become stricter and stricter on that nowadays...they ask for a 3-year break (or the official written permission by the previous National Federation), which can't be Mollaei's case in any of the supposed options...

probably he's thinking about his future not only in Olympic terms, but overall, which means that any option could really be on the table...and who cares if the Olympics are gone (just trying to intepretate his thoughts after reading your posts...I haven't heard anything about this specific case)...

in any case, as I wrote, it's sad to see a man (and an athlete) facing this kind of troubles...whatever happens, I'm sure this is not an easy moment in his life...

Edited April 19, 2019 by phelps

MHSN · April 20, 2019

3 hours ago, phelps said:

the problem wouldn't be about regular judo events (I'm not sure, but I think they're happy with a short break from the last appearance with the former Country)...

it would be for the Olympics...the IOC has become stricter and stricter on that nowadays...they ask for a 3-year break (or the official written permission by the previous National Federation), which can't be Mollaei's case in any of the supposed options...

probably he's thinking about his future not only in Olympic terms, but overall, which means that any option could really be on the table...and who cares if the Olympics are gone (just trying to intepretate his thoughts after reading your posts...I haven't heard anything about this specific case)...

in any case, as I wrote, it's sad to see a man (and an athlete) facing this kind of troubles...whatever happens, I'm sure this is not an easy moment in his life...

that's good from IOC. he will lose the next Olympics for sure if he doesn't solve his problems here. he is 27 now, he will be 32 for Paris 2024. this will be his best chance in Tokyo and of course I know it's highly possible for him to run into that Israeli guy and lose everything. that's probably a huge motivation for him thinking about going to another country. (in this case I completely understand him, this is really hard to swallow if you lose your lifetime chance because of that)

ironically that happened to Miresmaeili in peak of his career too when he was two time world champion and hot favorite for the gold in Athens 2004 and he was the flagbearer but the night before the opening ceremony they had the draw in Judo and he got Israel right in the first round. he cried the whole night but still carried the flag in the opening ceremony. I really believe our judo is cursed since that day. we were one win away from the first Olympic medal in Judo so many times but they lost it all (semifinals and bronze medal matches) , IJF changed the rules exactly because of Iranian judokas using wrestling techniques, and a plane crash killed the entire youth/junior teams few years ago, and lots of NT members leaving Iran (even though none of them achieved anything) also so many scandals inside the judo federation. they had something like 10 presidents in past 10 years. and just when things were getting better, the previous president had to resign, :wall:

I have to repeat it again, all I said here is just my own guess based on my previous experiences. I think he is considering all his options now, probably didn't decide anything yet, and where he is right now (Germany) already has a good judoka in his weight. I just hope he doesn't do something that he will regret later. once he opens his mouth talking about this there is no turning back from there.