2007 World Judo Championships to kick off in Rio

The 2007 World Championships will today commence in Rio de Janerio, Brazil.

There will be three Brits competing on day one, Karina Bryant in the +78kg weight category, Michelle Rogers in the –78kg weight category, and Peter Cousins in the –100kg weight category.

Karina Bryant will face Egyptian Samah Ramadan in her first fight. Should she progress she will meet the winner of the fight between Mexico’s Vanessa Zambotti and Urszula Sadkowska of Poland. Another notable name in her quarter is Giovanna Blanco of Venezuela who she fought in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Should she progress to the semi finals she could potentially meet Maki Tsukada of Japan or Sandra Koeppen of Germany. Ixis Duenas of Cuba, Wen Tong of China and Tia Donguzashvili all feature in the other half of the draw.

In the –78kg weight category Michelle Rogers will face Svetlana Timoshenko of Belarus first. Other notable names in her quarter include Xiulli Yang of China and Lucia Morico of Italy. Should Rogers progress to the semi finals she could potentially face Japan’s Nakazawa. Yurisel Laborde of Cuba and Gyeong Jeong of Korea feature in the other half of the draw.

Peter Cousins, in the –100kg weight cateogory, has a bye in the first round. In his first fight he will meet the winner of the Grego Vallarino of Uruguay and Ehasii Rajabi of Iran contest. Notable names in his half of the draw include Rustan Gasymov of Russia and current Olympic Champion at +100kg, Keiji Suzuki of Japan.

Each day the Championships will commence at 11.00am local time (15:00 BST). Finals are due to commence at 20:30 local time (00:30 BST).

The official website for the Championships is:

http://www.worldjudo2007.com/en/index.php

Media Contact:

Emma Griffin

Head of Communications

British Judo

Direct Line: +44(0)1509 631 692

Mobile: +44(0)7875 368 495

The Arena being set up on Wednesday

British Team