Great Britain returned from the 2003 World Championships in Japan with four automatic Olympic qualification places (Women’s -52kg qualified by Georgina Singleton, -70kg qualified by Kate Howey, +78kg qualified by Karina Bryant and Men’s –60kg qualified by Craig Fallon), but what happens now? How can we qualify further places in the remaining weight categories? Here we explain how the Olympic ranking system works and how Great Britain can qualify further places.

Note: points are awarded only if at least one contest has been won.

So, how many qualification tournaments are left? There are nine left for each of the Men and the Women teams and these are listed below:

Men

Moscow Super A Tournament – 24/25 January 2004
Paris Super A Tournament, France – 7/8 February 2004
Budapest A Tournament, Hungary- 14/15 February 2004
Hamburg Super A Tournament, Germany – 21/22 February 2004
Prague A Tournament, Czech Republic – 13/14 March 2004
Rotterdam A Tournament, Holland – 20/21 March 2004
Minsk A Tournament – 27/28 March 2004
Tbilissi A Tournament, Georgia – 3/4 April 2004
European Championships, Belgrade, Yugoslavia - 13/14/15 May 2004

Women

Moscow Super A Tournament – 24/25 January 2004
Sofia A Tournament, Bulgaria- 31/ January/1 February 2004
Paris Super A Tournament, France – 7/8 February 2004
Leonding A Tournament, Austria – 14/15February 2004
Hamburg Super A Tournament, Germany – 21/22 February 2004
Warsaw A Tournament, Poland – 13/14 March 2004
Rome A Tournament, Italy – 20/21 March 2004
Tallin A Tournament, Estonia - 27/28 March 2004
European Championships, Belgrade, Yugoslavia – 13/14/15 May 2004

After the 2004 European Championships in May, Olympic places will be allocated by the EJU in each weight category to the countries with the most points (top nine in each weight category for Men and top five in each weight category for Women).

The players from the countries that have already automatically qualified a place will be dropped out (since each country can only have one player in each weight category).

As the point’s table demonstrates, the points available are double what they were worth in 2003. This means that the crucial points are to be gained from this year’s European A Tournaments. Here we will be detailing the British Results so you can follow their progress:

BRITISH RESULTS - EUROPEAN A TOURNAMENTS 2004 (the EJU ranking as it stands following that particular tournament result is also shown)