A senior official of International Judo Federation (IJF) has applauded the venue for the judo competitions of next year's Beijing Olympic Games on Wednesday while attending a pre-tournament news conference for the upcoming 2007 Beijing Judo Open.

"The venue is well located...It's the first time we have a judo game in a city but a heart cycle of the city. We're happy with it, " said Francois Besson, Sports Director and Technical Delegate of the world judo governing body.

"I say it well located, firstly because the venue is located in a university," said the Frenchman. "It's a blessing that next year's Olympic judo competition would be held in a university, since you know, the sport originated in Japan and its founder and advocator was an educator."

"Also, the venue is just five kilometers away from the Olympic Village. It's a very close range," he added.

Judo tournament of the 29th Olympic Games in 2008 will be held in the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium, which is one of the nearest venues to the Beijing Olympic Tower with convenient transportation access and adjacent to the fourth North Ring, one of the capital city' s trunk roads.

The venue will also hold the taekwondo event of the Beijing Olympics, as well as the wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby event of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Besson also praised the facilities at the venue, the environment and the work done by the venue team, while showing his satisfaction with the site selection of the venue.

"Please allow me to express IJF's thanks to the Chinese government, Chinese Judo Association (CJA) and the venue team of the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium for all they have done for this tournament," Besson said.

"The good cooperation among the venue team, the IJF and the CJA will not only help promise the success of the event but reflect the spirit of the sport of judo," he said, adding that the excellent facilities and organizing work here made him very confident that the Beijing Judo Open is going to be a great success.

Besson, who has visited China for countless times to supervise the preparations of Beijing Organizing Committee for 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) , firstly involved himself in the organizations of Olympics in the Barcelona Games in 1992, and has participated in preparations and competition organizations for Olympic judo event in nearly every Games since then.

Among the series of "Good Luck Beijing" Olympic test events, the 2007 Beijing Judo Open will act as a rehearsal for the judo competitions of next year's grand sports event.

The tournament, slated for November 15-16, has attracted 114 judokas from 16 countries and regions to participate in four categories, the men's 66kg and 81kg and the women's 52kg and 63kg categories.

According to Gao Lanjie, a member of the tournament's organizing committee and the vice director to the BOCOG's judo team, the 2007 Beijing Judo Open is mainly aimed to test the facilities and organizing work here, rather than testing the level of the competitors.

Thus the tournament follows the IJF Sports and Organization Rules and Referee Rules, just as the Olympic judo competitions will do, but features only four categories instead of seven categories each in the men's and women's events in the Beijing Games.

"That's why we have 40 international technical officials (ITO) and 46 assistant technical officials on duty for such an event," Gao added.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2007)