(& the opportunity to watch some live)

This summer is looking busy for the international Judo teams, and should make some great entertainment. There are two main events; one of which is occurring in the land of Pandas and thus a little too far for a DUJC social, and the other which is happening RIGHT HERE in the UK so if you would like to go just let me know.

Beijing Olympics.

Let's start with the biggest sporting event: the one that everyone (from all sports) is awaiting eagerly/apprehensively/with downright terror. The Olympics stretch throughout August, but we're concerned mostly with 9th-15th (inclusive). This is when the truly amazing Judo will be occurring, so make sure you keep some time free to watch. The BBC have a page dedicated to Judo [all links below the photograph], where you can find links to information on the Team, the Olympics, famous Judokas and Judo in general. Very useful for keeping up to date, and two of the GB Men's team have also produced a video entitled "How to Win at Judo"... That might be a touch of exaggeration but they do demonstrate a number of different throws, so, whilst you won't pick up anything new from the video, it is interesting to watch and good to see what you're aiming for in training.

As expected, the BJA site also has a wealth of info. on the team and the forthcoming Olymp

ics. You can 'meet' the team, see how the games will be scored and get reports directly from Beijing.

World Cup Women's Finals

Fantastically, this first major international event post-Olympics is occurring much closer to home. Having just finished the summer Olympics, the world of Judo is already preparing for the 2012 Games. The 2008 Women's World Cup is happening in Birmingham, 2

0-21 September. Tickets are just £14 a day, so if you'd like to go please get in touch with me & we can go and see teams from all over the world fighting for the title, LIVE. *How* exciting would that be?

The BBC Judo site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/judo/default.stm

BJA Info. on Beijing:

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/beijing/index.php

Meet the Beijing Team:

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/beijing/index.php

The Structure for Scoring:

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/beijing/guides.php

GB Women's World Cup:

Now, for some reason this link doesn't work for me. I can only suggest that you try it, and hope that it's just a problem with my laptop, or alternatively go to the BJA homepage and search from there. It's currently overloaded with information about Beijing, but in the menus on the left there's the option to select Competitions > GB World Cup. Here's the link, good luck:

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/home/gbtoholdworldcupeventinbirmingham.php