All Japan Judo Championships to welcome first female referee onto the mat
(Mainichi Japan)
A female referee will stand for the first time on the mat at the All
Japan Judo Championships on April 29, the All Japan Judo Federation has
announced.
In a push toward gender equality in the sport, 46-year-old Akiko
Amano, who also became the first Japanese female judo referee at the
2008 Beijing Olympics, will now stand on the mat of one of the sport's
most traditional and high-status events at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo
next week. "I feel like I am standing at the turning point of an era,"
Amano said, "I am honored."
The All Japan Judo Championships began in 1948 as an all-male event
to become the top judoka in Japan with no weight classifications. The
competition has its own unique culture, such as keeping the "yuko"
scoring system even though it was removed by the International Judo
Federation this year. A high-ranking official of the All Japan Judo
Federation described having Amano serve as referee as having "moved the
conservative history of the world of judo."
Amano was born in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward into a firework-making family
with a history spanning roughly 350 years back to the start of the Edo
period. Her family also opened a judo dojo, and she naturally found
herself practicing the sport from the age of 7. When she was a
first-year high school student at Kyoritsu Girls' Junior and Senior High
School, Amano beat Kaori Yamaguchi, who would go on to win bronze at
the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the women's 52 kilogram weight class.
Amano was an impressive judoka in her own right, but after
graduating from Nihon University, she retired from the sport to become
the 15th, and first female, successor to her family's fireworks business
in 2000. She says the ability to make quick decisions is the same in
the workshop as it is on the mat.
At the recommendation of her father, Amano started judging judo
matches in 1995, and polished her skills, such as where to stand and
when to give direction, through learning from her seniors. Her hard work
paid off at the Beijing Olympics, where referees are also judged by
their performance in each match and only those who do a good job move
onto become judges at higher level matches. Drawing on her own
experiences as a judoka, Amano judged the men's 100 kilogram weight
class gold medal match. Due to the unique spirit of the athletes who put
their lives on the line at the Games, "Refereeing them was
intimidating," Amano recalled.
Having experienced what she describes as the highest degree of
stress during the 2008 Games, Amano said, "I want to apply my experience
in Beijing to refereeing the Japan
ニュースサイトで読む: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20170424/p2a/00m/0na/015000c#csidx44f1d0101afb5c19f3baede56d417cf
Copyright 毎日新聞
No comments:
Post a Comment
add