JudoCrazy E-Mag (December) | Page 136

Jun 13 Stephanie Inglis, who had sustained a severe head injury in a motorbike accident in Vietnam, is now back in Scotland after waking up from an induced coma a week ago. Inglis, who has made a remarkable recovery, will continue her treatment at an Edinburgh Hospital. Doctors in Vietnam had initially given her only a 1% chance of recovery.

Jun 15 Japan's two-time world champion Hiroshi Minatoya dies at the age of 72. After winning a silver medal in his first World Championships in Rio de Janeiro in 1965, Minatoya went on to win gold medals at the 1967 and 1969 World Championships in Salt Lake City and Mexico City, respectively. He would later go on to win another silver medal at the 1971 World Championships in Ludwigshafen.

Jun 24 South Korea's Wang Ki-Chun announces his retirement from international competition as he prepares for a coaching career. Wang, a double World Champion and Olympic silver medallist at -73kg, recently moved up to -81kg and was looking forward to a third Olympic appearance but he failed to qualify for Rio 2016. His teammate and rival, Kim Jae-Bum, who also failed to qualify for Rio, retired in May.

Jun 26 Elvismar Rodriguez creates history by becoming the first ever Venezuelan player to win an IJF World Tour title when she defeated Laura Vargas Koch in the -70kg final of the Budapest Grand Prix. Rodriguez, who is only 19 years old, has been training at the IJF Training Centre in Dunavarsany, Hungary. She was also a bronze medallist at the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games.

Jul 2 Italy's Valentina Moscatt gets a surprise qualification for Rio 2016 after an athlete from Oceania had withdrawn and her spot was reallocated. Moscatt, who was just on the edge of qualification for -48kg in May, is now able to join teammates Odette Giuffrida (-52kg), Edwige Gwend (-63kg), Elios Manzi (-60kg), Fabio Basile (-66kg)and Matteo Marconcini (-81kg) in going to Rio.

Aug 4 Belgium's Ilse Heylen declines IJF's invitation to compete in Rio. A slot had opened for the continental quota after an injured player withdrew. Her husband, Olivier Berghmans explains the reason for rejecting the offer: "It makes no sense to come to Rio, she stopped training and it’s impossible to reach her weight with four days to go with a flight of 12 hours ahead as well.”

Aug 5 IJF awards the 2017 World Junior Championships to North Korea.

IJF chooses Azerbaijan and Japan to be the host countries for the 2018 and 2019 World Championships, respectively.

Aug 17 Police arrest Patrick Hickey, head of the European Olympic Committees, over charges of illegal Olympic ticket sales. He is a former Irish Judo Federation president, honorary member of the European Judo Union and was the first person inducted into the IJF Hall of Fame in 2013.

Aug 18 Georgia's Olympic silver medallist Varlam Liparteliani is moving up to -100kg. That means teammate Beka Gviniashvili can go back down to -90kg.

Aug 29 Israel's Olympic bronze medallist Yarden Gerbi auctions her Rio backpatch for US$52,100 to raise funds for the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center to purchase medical equipment.

Oct 3 Russia's triple World Champion Alexander Mikhailin, 37, is making a comeback and plans to participate in the next Olympic cycle.