BJC Organizes the Biggest Training Camp from Brazil with Olympic and World Champions
The activities in Saquarema will be taken part in by about 200 athletes, including Olympic champions such as Sarah Menezes and Kayla Harrison (USA) and the seven times world champion Teddy Riner (FRA).
For the second consecutive year, the Brazilian Judo Confederation organizes the International Training Camp at the Volleyball Development Centre (CDV) located in Saquarema, Região dos Lagos of Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with the Brazilian Olympic Committee. This year's event will take place from January 27th to February 7th and it will be even bigger than the previous one : there will come around 200 athletes from 11 national teams - Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Israel, Germany, Italy, Japan, Ireland, Austria and the United States. Tunisia expressed its interest and is expected to confirm its attendance in the coming days, the first African team to participate in this event.
The Brazilian delegation will be represented by junior and senior athletes of all weight classes, both women and men. Most Brazilian Olympic and world medalists such as Mayra Aguiar, Sarah Menezes, Erika Miranda, Ketleyn Quadros, Rafaela Silva, Felipe Kitadai, Tiago Camilo, Luciano Correa, Leandro Guilheiro and Rafael Silva, will participate in the activity. The new senior members after winning the last Selective in December 2014 will also come to Saquarema.
Other big names of the international judo confirmed their participation in this training, further increasing the technical level of the event. Some world medalists such as Karl-Richard Frey (GER), bronze-awarded in Chelyabinsk 2014, Daiki Nishiyama (JPN), silver winner in the World Championship Paris 2011 and Buchard Amandine (FRA), bronze in Chelyabinsk, will train together with Olympic medalists such as Dimitri Peters (GER), bronze winner in London 2012, Henk Grol (NED), bronze in London and Beijing, Marti Malloy (USA), bronze in London, and Kayla Harrison (USA), Olympic and world champion. The biggest name of today’s international judo due to his Olympic gold and seven world titles, the French Teddy Riner is another athlete who confirmed his attendance at the training camp.
"This training is a very important stage of our planning, since it marks the beginning of the year for many athletes, especially for those who have not been to the training in Austria," said Ney Wilson, BJC’s Performance Director. "The increase in the number and the technical quality of teams and athletes participating proves the consolidation of the event in the international calendar. Foreign teams recognize the high technical level of this activity, which leads to more and more national teams come to Saquarema. "
In 2014, the event counted on 150 athletes from six different countries. For this edition, the number of national teams has almost doubled and there will be around 200 athletes training, showing that this number may get higher each year, especially on the eve of the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
