(Beijing, November 16)The "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 Beijing Judo Open concluded this evening at the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium. After two days’ fierce competition judoists from Europe walked off with three of the four gold medals on offer, while the host team took one silver and three bronzes.

The women’s 63kg final held this evening saw China’s Yan Xuelan pitted against Japan’s Ayumi Tanimoto. In the first one minute, the two sides remained cautious and tried to feel out the opponent’s intention. Soon Ayumi Tanimoto launched a sudden attack by holding Yan Xuelan down to the ground with a “ne-waza” and managed to maintain her superiority till she won the title with an “ippon”. The gold medal Ayumi Tanimoto had won turned out to be the only gold won by an Asian judoist at the Beijing Open tournament.

China’s Han Guizhong and Chinese Taipei’s Wang Chin Fang tied for the third place.

In the following men’s 81kg final, Antonio Ciano of Ital, by an almost “ippon”, beat Japanese opponent Takashi Ono for the gold medal. Takashi Ono was the bronze medalist at both the 2005 World Championships and 2006Asian Summer Games. Aea Min-Sun of Korea and Yury Panasenkov of Russia got the bronze medals.

Altogether 114 judoists from 16 IJF member associations participated in the four events of the Beijing Open. On the opening day of the tournament, Alim Gadanov of Russia and Caroline Lantoine of France clinched the men’s 66kg and the women’s 52kg titles respectively. China’s Liu Changchun and Xiao Jun earned two bronze medals in the men’s 66kg and women’s 52kg  respectively.

As an Olympic test event the Beijing Judo Open aims at testing the overall level of the event organization rather than the athletes’ athletic levels. To prepare for the upcoming World Judo Championships, most teams had not sent their top judoists to the Beijing Open. However, the event still saw high-level performances in the men’s 66kg finals, where Alim Gadanov successfully outdid Japan’s Olympic gold medalist Masato Uchishiba.

Through the two-day open tournament, as executive president Quan Liangzhu put it at the press conference held by the event organizing committee this afternoon, the overall operation of the venue, including facilities and equipment, media, medical service and catering, has been tested and local organizers have accumulated precious experience for next year’s Olympic Games.

Having praised the good preparations made by the local organizers for the event, Francois Besson, IJF Technical Delegate to the 2007 Beijing Judo Open, gave his views on the improvement to be made. The lighting inside the venue, for example, was dazzling bright which affected the spectators when they watched the matches on the stands. The scoreboard, he added, should be updated in time. Despite these shortcomings, the IJF Vice-President Marius Vizer spoke highly of the event organization and competition management. In his words, the IJf is highly confident that the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will be crowned with success.