From November 16-17 former Mika Stadium hosted the Armenian Judo Championship which was attended by 89 athletes. Tatul Hovhannisyan, the secretary general of the Judo Federation of Armenia, summed up the championship and told the ANOC press service about the achievements and problems.

“We are somewhat satisfied with the number of participants because we always had 60-70 athletes but this time there are 89 athletes and there is a tendency of increase that is very pleasing. The championship participants are young and there are many promising athletes among them. After the championship there will be formed a national team which will take part in training camps and international tournaments where we will see their readiness,” he said.

Tatul Hovhannisyan said that the federation has provided schools with some facilities but there is always a shortage.
“The policy of the federation to provide schools with sports facilities gave some result but there are sports schools that don’t have tatamis, facilities and there is a lack of coaches. As a secretary general I’d like our teams to have more training camps in order to create competitiveness that will lead to the development and growth of the sport because in many cases the athletes that have taken third positions and showed good results in international tournaments have joined a training camp while for the organization of more training camps we need the necessary amount of money.”

The secretary general of the federation noted that the International Federation gives an opportunity to coaches to take an online exam for qualifications.

“At present our International Federation gives an opportunity to take an online qualification exam both for coaches and referees.

Levon Julfalakyan who has been appointed head of the Department of Sports and Youth of Yerevan, has applied to the federation to submit the list of judo coaches in sports schools under the jurisdiction of the municipality that is very laudable because coaches mostly register as judo coaches but teach other sports and the federation can say exactly who is who. It is a very right approach. There are judo coaches who occupy judo coach position but train other sports, for instance sambo. With all due respect to the other sports we must defend the interests of our sport. If some coaches have problems with coaching judo, let them give their place to others,” he said.