Chris Skelley throws his opponent in Rio
Judo

Judo

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Introduction

One of two martial arts in the Paralympics, judo combines tactical skill, strength and decisive movement.

The rules are the same as in Olympic Judo, only the two fighters start gripped up.

Sport Details

The Rules

Each competition is based on weight divisions. There are seven for men and six for women.

  • Men’s events: -60kg, -66kg, -73kg, -81kg, -90kg, -100kg, +100kg.
  • Women’s events: -48kg, -52kg, -57kg, -63kg, -70kg, +70kg.

The rules are the same as in Olympic Judo, only the two fighters start gripped up.

The men’s contest takes place over a maximum of five minutes, with four minute contests for women. Scores of varying degrees are awarded for throws, holding techniques or submissions with judoka scoring the coveted ippon to end the contest.

However, if neither achieves an ippon during the contest, the player who has accumulated the greatest number of points, achieved through throws and holds such as a yuko and a waza-ari, by the end of the bout is declared the winner. Two waza-ari also make an ippon.

Penalties (or shidos) are also given to the athletes for a range of reasons and can ultimately lead to victory and/or disqualification. Collecting four penalties can award victory to their opponent.

If both judoka are tied on scores or penalties at the end of their contest, it goes to a ‘golden score’, where the first person to score wins with no time limit during ‘golden score’.

Scoring

Ippon is the biggest score in judo and scoring ippon ends the contest. It is shown on the scoreboard as 100.

Ippon can be scored in one of four ways:

  1. Throwing your opponent largely on their back with considerable force and speed.
  2. Holding down your opponent with Osaekomi waza (holding techniques), who is unable to escape for 20 seconds.
  3. When your opponent submits tapping twice or more with their hand or foot or say maitti (I give up) as a result of osaekomi waza (holding techniques), shime waza (choking or strangling techniques) or kansetsu waza (arm locks).
  4. Scoring two waza-ari against your opponent.

Waza-ari is shown on the scoreboard as a score of 10 and can be scored in two ways:

  1. Throwing your opponent but lacking one of the three elements for ippon – largely on their back or with force and speed.
  2. Holding down your opponent for 15 seconds or more, but less than 20 seconds.

Yuko is shown on the scoreboard as a score of 1 and can be scored in two ways:

  1. Throwing your opponent but lacking two of the three elements for ippon – largely on their back or with force and speed.
  2. Holding down your opponent for 10 seconds but less than 15 seconds.

Judo at the Paralympic Games is for visually impaired athletes. Each weight category is ‘open’ with players from B1, B2 and B3 classes competing against each other in the same grouping.

B1: This category encompasses no light perception in either eye up to light perception, but there is an inability to recognise shapes at any distance or in any direction.

B2 & B3: Both of these categories involve a low level of usable partial vision, those in the B3 category will be able to see more than those graded as B2.

If an athlete has a red circle on their kit, it indicates that athlete has a B1 level of visual impairment. If an athlete has a yellow circle on their kit, it indicates that athlete is deaf as well as having a visual impairment.

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