Neil Adams on the new rules and the final of 73 kg
Italiajudo had a chat with the leggend Neil Adams on the new judo rules and on two specific fights of the 2017 World Judo Championships: the final of 73kg and the fight of Fabio Basile against Baul An.
Neil Adams was the first British world judo champion (1981) and he is without doubt the most decorated and celebrated British judoka of all time. He won 4 medals at the World Judo Championships in 4 consecutive editions, from 1979 to 1985. He also won two silver medals at the Olympic Games and 8 medals at the European Championships, 5 of which were gold.
Neil Adams was the first British world judo champion (1981) and he is without doubt the most decorated and celebrated British judoka of all time. He is in the Hall of Fame of the International Judo Federation (IJF), which has the aim of celebrating the best judokas ever. Neil Adams currently runs a coach education business and he is also an IJF Referee Supervisor and commentator. He has been one of the promoters and best supporter of the new judo rules introduced in January 2017.
The pilot period of the new rules will expire at the end of the World Judo Championships. Afterwards, they will be officially introduced. Feedback has been more than positive as the new rules give judokas more possibility to produce positive judo and bigger scores. Are you going to propose any minor changes after the World Judo Championships?
With regard to the final of the 73 kg between Hashimoto and Orujov, I think it shouldn’t have been assigned a score like that. It is true that Hashimoto fell on his side to the ground and for this reason, considering the current rules, the referees rightly assigned waza ari. Therefore, the decision was correctly taken. However, I have already proposed to distinguish between front side, closer to the tummy, and back side, closer to the back. In my opinion, if you fall on the back side a waza ari should be assigned. I know other people agree with me on this.
Is there anything else you would like to propose?
No. In general, I am satisfied with the new rules. Here in Budapest, I do believe that the referees gave a correct and rigid interpretation of the new rules.
We saw many fights which ended at the Golden Score. Do you think this is a negative thing?
I do not think so. As long as the Golden Score represents a continuation of the first 4 minutes, I do not see a problem. I must say that in most of the cases when opponents arrived at the Golden Score we saw a dynamic judo.
What do you think of the shido assigned to Fabio Basile in his fight against Baul An?
I think that it is not a positive attitude when an athlete is looking for a shido. For this reason, I didn’t appreciate the attitude of Fabio Basile in that fight. This is not waht we expect from an Olympic Champion.
Don’t you think that that shido was not consistent with the choices that the referees have taken until that moment?
You are probably right. I believe that the referees assigned the shido because of Fabio’s attitude. Once again, we do not want an Olympic Champion or a World Champion to look for a shido in any part of the fight.
ACCESS TO THE ITALIAN VERSION OF THIS INTERVIEW
Commenta con Facebook