Budapest will host the Judo World Championships in June

Budapest will host the Judo World Championships in 2021 which will be a qualifier for the Tokyo Olympic Games and held from 6-13 June. The IJF now confirmed the championships in the Hungarian capital.

Previously Budapest was awarded to organise the 2022 World Championships and Tashkent were awarded with the 2021 worlds. László Tóth, the head of the Hungarian Judo Association, announced at the final day of the Grand Slam competition on Sunday that Budapest will host the event starting on June 3, 2021, in Budapest’s Papp László Sports Arena. The Grand Slam competition in Budapest was the first international judo tournament in eight months.The Hungarian Judo Association will organise the most important qualifying competition for the Tokyo five-ring games.

László Tóth announced that the Budapest event will be the standard for the next international competitions, and even the organizers of the Tokyo Olympics have indicated that they would utilize the Hungarian experience.

Toth was proud how the procedures were followed: “In the beginning, many people did not understand why if they had passed the two PCR tests taken and then screened in Budapest, then why they could not get out of the bubble. Two of the Greek team went shopping in the city, and when we sent them home, the whole Judo family already accepted the conditions. I am proud that the system co-invented with the international federation worked so well that only one given positive sample out of 409 participants in the second test here” he explained.

Also in 2017 Budapest was host of the IJF World Judo Championships.