Athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to participate in the World Judo Championships in less than two weeks in Tashkent, as recommended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), because of the war in Ukraine.
In recent months, the World Judo Federation (IJF) has been one of the few federations that have allowed these countries to compete as non-national athletes under the IJF banner, but this time they will take part in the sport's biggest event of the year, in the capital of Uzbekistan from October 6 to 13.
"We will not participate in the World Championships," confirmed the president of the Russian Judo Federation Vasily Anisimov to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Ukraine boycotted the Mongolian Grand Slam because of the presence of the Russians and threatened to do the same for the World Championships.
Before that, the Russian and Belarusian judokas refused to participate as neutrals.
"As long as Russia is waging war in Europe, destroying Ukraine, terrorizing our people, we will not continue to compete with them on the mat," said the president of the Judo Federation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Koshlyak, as reported by Ukrinform.
As you may recall, already last year Russia competed under a neutral flag at the World Judo Championships in Budapest 2021. Then it was because of the sanctions of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which will remain in force at major events until December 17 this year.
So far, about 600 athletes from 85 countries have registered for the World Championships in Tashkent, including 18 male and female athletes from Israel, in the largest delegation ever to leave here for this event.
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