Judo World Cup Jeju (Korea)

This past weekend was the judo World Cup in Jeju, South Korea.  Several countries hold World Cups where competitors from around the world can come and compete.  Coming off the tails of the Tokyo Grand Slam, this event attracted some great talent, though not quite top tier as would a Grand Slam event.

The day before the event, a competitor from Busan came by our school.  He was a young kid, maybe 15 or 16 years old, but already had knobbed up fingers.  Oh judo!  This wasn't the first time that a high level competitor stopped by our school.  On two other occasions that I remember, we had high level players come by for a workout before a big event.  I'm not quite sure why.  It is probably to get the blessing of our master instructor who has been the owner of our school for 30 years.  My school is the most historic in Busan, the second largest city in South Korea and the instructor is well regarded in the judo community.

In any event, it's great to see the next generation of potential world class talent come through every few months.  Korea fared well in the tournament but did not take the top spot as a team in the final results.  Coming in second to Japan, Korea still captured 4 gold medals, 10 silvers and 11 bronze medals.

Kim Jae Bum - on top of the judo world

As my instructor said in an interview I had with him, the future of Korean judo (유도) looks brights in the middle and lightweight divisions.  The way it seems to me after training here for a year an a half, he's probably right.  After Korea's performance at the Olympic Games (with the exception of Wang Ki Chun being injured by a juji gatame) I would have to agree.  It's really fun to be this close to one of the strongest judo programs in the world.