Medals key to judo lottery support
The remaining members of Britain’s judo team are fighting for the future lottery funding of the sport after both middleweights Graeme Randall, the world champion, and Karen Roberts failed to get medals yesterday.
Although the official prediction for these Games was that Britain would get one bronze medal, a second is necessary to ensure that the sport is entitled to increased support.
Four medals were won at the 1999 world championships when Roberts finished third and Randall first. It was here that the Scotsman produced a superb display of attacking verve in Birmingham to become only the second Briton after Neil Adams ever to take a men’s title. But yesterday he was lacklustre.
Randall started well by uprooting Abdessalem Arous, of Tunisia, with a double leg-grab. It was just the sort of bout a competitor needs in the opening round to give him confidence and sharpen his reflexes, but without excessively tiring him. In the next contest, he met Kazem Sarikhani, of Iran, the Asian champion with the days long gone in judo when someone from a country such as Iran would automatically be regarded as a welcome opponent. To be champion of that continent means you have battled past the representatives of Japan and the two Koreas, three of the strongest nations in the world.
Randall began with two attempts at leg-grabs and then dumped his opponent on the mat with a hip throw for a knock-down. The Iranian was having problems with Randall’s mauling style and conceded a point for incorrect holding. But from that moment the contest slipped away from the world champion. Randall was also penalised for defensive holding and then conceded another passivity point. When both fighters were then penalised simultanously for passivity, Randall was disqualified for having acquired three adverse points.
Randall said afterwards: "I cannot recall ever losing on passivity before. I had seen videos of him and knew what he was going to do. I felt I had the contest sewn up but Sarikhani got ahead and then closed the contest down."
"I am not retiring because of one bad tournament but first I am going home to Edinburgh to watch my baby born, get married and finish my degree."
Udo Quellmalz, Britain’s performance director, said: "The Iranian’s only idea was to make Graeme look passive. It was not attractive judo. He did not try to throw Graeme and sometimes you cannot find your way past an opponent."
Roberts, 23, had also began brightly, surprisingly beating Kenia Rodriguez, of Cuba. However, she was then defeated on a unanimous decision by Anja Von Rekowski, of Germany, before being held down in her first bout in the repechage by Saida Dhari, of Tunisia, to whom she had lost in the Belarus tournament last month.
John Goodbody
The Times
