Across the 2nd - 5th July, Sobell judoka Alex Charalambous and Sam Sampson travelled to the 2019 World Sports Games in Tortosa to take on judoka from across the globe in hopes of achieving a world medal.
The World Sports Games is a multi sports event similar to the Olympics where thousands of athletes descend of a different city every two years in hopes of achieving glory on the world stage.
In 2019, our judoka travelled with team JFAUK to Tortosa to test themselves. First up from Sobell was Alex Charalambous in the senior mens -73kg category. Despite a valiant effort, Alex was unfortunately knocked out in the group stages after falling short to the eventual finalists hailing from Iran and Italy.
However, also competing in the men’s -73kg was team JFAUK member Oli Relton who managed to achieve a bronze medal.
Sobell’s Sam Sampson was up next, In the senior men’s -81kg category. Sam took on an extremely tough category of Iranian, Spanish, Italian and Austrian judoka but was unfortunately knocked out in the group stages after drawing an extremely tough group which included the world’s current number 1 ranked judoka from Iran.
Also competing for JFAUK was Ross Elliot in the men’s -100kg category, who also managed to achieve a bronze medal.
Although unsuccessful for Sobell in terms of medal count, much experience was gained by the duo who will now bring this experience back to Sobell and assist our aspiring judoka.
Held every two years, the event always draws very experienced judoka from across the world and is a true test at the highest level for our judoka. As always, we are proud of our team for taking on the challenge and congratulate the wider teams medalists. We look forward to 2021 where we can step back on the WSG tatami.
