London – GBR, July 29, 2012: Ebinuma, The International Judo Federation is strongly committed to equity and, as part of our sport judo, to the development of all the tools that in our competitions help the referees to make the right decisions, so that the best fighters win. In order to achieve this, a video system was set up and has proved successful.
In the quarter final between two fighters (the Japanese, EBINUMA Masashi, and CHO Jun-Ho from the Republic of Korea) during the Golden Score (three minutes sudden death period, where the first score wins) the commission intervened twice. The first time, after checking the video by three experts, to inform the referees that the impact of the projection of the Japanese could not be valued at level 1 (Yuko).
A second time, when at the end of Golden Score, the three referees designated the athlete from the Republic of Korea as the winner. Indeed, the commission explained to the referees that the action, which had been recognized as a Yuko and then lowered in value, was nevertheless the strongest action to be taken into consideration.
The referee and the two judges of the fight, after having received the details from the experts commission, decided to change their decision and give victory to the Japanese. The IJF states that this is the final and right decision.
Interventions from video experts during contests have been effective for more than one Olympic period, but it was the first time ever that they were acting on a final decision (flag decision).
Refereeing is a job under very high pressure and the CARE system (video replay system) is now of great assistance to them in performing their activity. Judo, invented by Jigoro Kano at the end of the 19th century, has a definition of courage in its moral code, a definition which is: “courage is doing what is right“. —- IJF
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