Mon, Aug 26, 2019 page10

• Kosovo becomes an unexpected global judo stronghold

  • AFP, PRISTINA
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  The young and tiny nation of Kosovo has emerged as a world judo power, its unexpected success spearheaded by diminutive Olympic champion Majlinda Kelmendi.

  Eleven years after it gained independence from Serbia and in her first Summer Olympics, Kelmendi’s success in Rio in 2016 enabled Kosovo and its 2 million people to beat big brother Albania and gain their first-ever Olympic medal in any sport.

  Kelmendi goes in search of more gold when she competes in the world championships in Tokyo this weekend.

  

  Taiwan’s Yung Wei-yang, left, and France’s Luka Mkheidze compete in their Judo World Championships men’s under-60kg bout at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on Saturday.

  Photo: AFP

  Kosovo’s judo success story was created by coach Driton “Toni” Kuka in the small town of Pec where he founded a judo club with his brothers.

  A training room with a leaky roof and worn carpets did not prevent the club from producing champions — the authorities decided only recently to finance its renovation.

  “I’m sure that if there was no Toni, Kosovo would not have all these medals today, especially the Olympic gold,” Kelmendi, 28, said.

  Kelmendi is the brightest star on Kuka’s team, but she now leads a group whose members aspire for their share of world titles.

  Most come from the same neighborhood.

  At the end of the 1998-1999 war, when NATO air strikes forced Belgrade to withdraw its troops from Kosovo, Kuka founded his club at Asllan Ceshme, a poor neighborhood in the foothills of the mountains.

  Their children were his first trainees.

  “Kosovo was in ruins and children traumatized,” he recalled.

  Kelmendi, who lived “100m from the hall,” was among those who joined the club, the coach recalled.

  “I didn’t know anything about this sport, but I was happy,” Kelmendi said. “We children had nothing else to do.”

  Kelmendi’s exploits in winning world and Olympic titles brought her compatriots into the streets to celebrate.

  “We have transformed children who have suffered from the war into world champions, measuring ourselves against countries like France, Japan or Brazil that have thousands of judokas available to build their teams,” Kuka said.

  JUDO WORLDS

  Taiwan’s Yung Wei-yang eased past his round 1 to round 4 opponents in the Judo World Championships — Britain’s Askley McKenzie, Russia’s Robert Mshvidobadze, France’s Luka Mkheidze and Uzbekistan’s Diyorbek Urozboev — only to be ousted yesterday by Lukhumi Chkhvimiani of Georgia in their men’s under-60kg quarter-final at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.

  The Nippon Budokan is to be the venue for judo events at next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games.

  Yung clinched bronze at this month’s Asian Open in Taipei, bronze at July’s Grand Prix in Budapest, silver at May’s Grand Prix in Hohhot, China, and silver at April’s Asian Pacific Championships in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates.

  Last year, Yung won the Asian Open in Hong Kong and, in 2017, he was ranked the No. 1 under-60kg junior by the International Judo Federation.

  Additional reporting by staff writer
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