2015 British Open has arrived at The SSE Arena, Wembley
The prestigious British Open tournament is steeped in history having run for over five decades, however for the first time ever it will be staged in The SSE Arena, Wembley. The ‘Wembley Arena’ first called the British Empire Exhibition Stadium which has played host to two Olympic Games [1948, 2012]. The history of the British Open Championships will now be engraved in the archive of an iconic venue.
The tournament will be held across the weekend featuring the first seven weight classes on Saturday and the remaining categories on Sunday. London 2012 Olympian and European bronze medalist [2013], Ashley MCKENZIE; Croatian Grand Prix winner [2015], Nekoda DAVIS and Baku Grand Slam silver medalist [2015] and Colin OATES will all be on the spotlight during the first day of the event.
Ashley McKenzie will be aiming to dominate in the -60kg category starting off against Kimran BORCHASHVILI (AUT). Nekoda Davis will return to defend her title in the -57kg category. To do that, she will first have to overcome Myriam MARTIN (BEL). Colin Oates steps up a weight class, however, his goal will be the same, which is to claim the title of the -73kg category.
The President of the British Judo Association, George Kerr CBE 10th Dan said: “Having the tournament at Wembley Arena is a fantastic opportunity. It is like having the tournament in Bercy stadium in France; which is where I actually got my 10th Dan from Mr. Jean-Luc Rouge [The President of the French Federation] and Mr. Marius Vizer [The President of the International Judo Federation]. So to be here in the Wembley Stadium it is wonderful for the sport of judo and I hope there will be a lot of people to see that.”
“I think the new venue is going to help the profile of judo because the arena is synonymus with big events. I won the British Open three times, the first time was in 1966 and it would have meant a great deal to fight at such a venue.”
The tournament will start at 10:30am with the final block starting at 15:30!
Check out the rest of the draw on ippon.org
Follow the action live on twitter with @BritishJudo
Hashtags:
#BritishJudoOpen
#EJCup
#europeanjudo
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