The Yawara Challenge international judo club tournament for the Lokomotiv Cup will feature four men’s teams: Yawara-Neva, Lokomotiv (both Russia), Crvena Zvezda (Serbia) and SC Tehran (Iran). The competition will be held on 17 June as part of the sports and entertainment programme of the 25th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Yawara-Neva is the 10-time European club judo champion and the reigning winner of the title. Notably, the Russian club defeated Crvena Zvezda in the Champions League final in December 2021.
Khasan Khalmurzaev, the 2016 Olympic champion, will lead Yawara-Neva in the SPIEF Sport Week tournament. European champions Mikhail Igolnikov and Inal Tasoev will also be part of the renowned club from St. Petersburg. World champion Nemanja Majdov will captain Crvena Zvezda.
“The tournament will take place in a wall-to-wall format – one of the most spectacular in judo. Holding the Yawara Challenge during SPIEF is an important contribution to strengthening Russia's international ties with friendly countries through our sport, and we are grateful to the Roscongress Foundation for its support and to Russian Railways and Lokomotiv Sport Club for this year’s opportunity," said Sergey Soloveychik, Vice President of the Russian Judo Federation.
The competition format is a round-robin system, with each team competing against all opponents. The Yawara Challenge for the Lokomotiv Cup will take place at the Vysota Sports Complex.
The Yawara Challenge judo club tournament made its debut last year, also as part of the SPIEF sports and entertainment programme. Then the Yawara-Neva men's and women's club teams challenged teams from Spain AJM Madrid (men) and JC Valencia (women) to the mat. As a result of the friendly matches, both teams of the Russian club-record holder, who gave the competition its name, won the cup.
Check out the updates on the SPIEF 2022 preparation in the official Forum social network accounts.
Telegram:
VK:
