PJC Pan American Masters Championships

This weekend the Masters Pan Am is being held in Buenos Aires. I wonder about the success of this tournament. Since the World Masters will take place in Abu Dhabi this year, I would assume that a lot of masters competitors would be unable to go to such a far and expensive venue. My inkling is that competitors from the American hemisphere would rather go to Buenos Aires than Abu Dhabi. However, I also realize that Buenos Aires is distant from most American countries. A few years ago, a Pan Am Championship was held in south Brazil and although it had a decent attendance, most of the competitors were from Brazil, making it basically a national championship rather than Pan American. So, I really would like to know about the turn out of this championship. Please let us know.

Just as I predicted, this Pan Am turned out to be a regional championship between Brazilians and Argentinians. I wish they consider other venues like Mexico or Panama. These locations are in the middle of the American hemisphere and can attract more competitors. My prediction as to the World Veterans Championships in Abu-Dhabi is the same. It's too far away and expensive, and I simply don't see many people going there. It's too bad because if judo for veterans is given serious consideration, then why choose competition venues so inaccessible to most of the countries willing to participate in?

I just really don't want to deal with the IJF or USA Judo. It was fine when it was the World Masters Championship, announced a year in advanced, and anybody could go (provided you we're over 30). The locations were once in a lifetime places you wanted to visit/make a true vacation of it. The financials didn't make you cringe with mandatory hotels and packages. There was no need to even think about competing for a spot.

Abu Dhabi? I know it's big for grappling, but really. I've already been to enough arab countries and really don't want to go to more when I haven't been to places like England, Germany, Australia, France, etc, etc, etc.

As far as the Pan Ams, I think if they'd go someplace that was vacation friendly for spouse (and spouse with children for those of us with younger kids), then maybe they'd attract more people. Plus, I've never heard from participants that it's all that great of a tournament. I don't personally want to be treated like an elite athlete. I want to go, play some good judo, meet up with old friends, drink some beer (Abu Dhabi? Beer? ugh! any alcohol in a muslim country is difficult to find), and tell some tall tales. I want to be able to leave the venue and find other stuff that makes me appreciate where I am visiting, learn a bit about the place, and not realize it's just a Venezuelan translation of small town or big city.

One of the questions the people putting this stuff together needs to start answering is, "what are the spouses going to do during the competition? Is there anything there that attracts the judoka to spend his/her vacation there?" If it's all judo unless I start doing some serious Google-fu to find other things of interest, then chances are I'm not spending my limited funds going someplace to have a medal handed to me.

Medal handed to me? Oh, yeah, that's another one. We want to play. I could care less about a medal that I didn't earn. Get the numbers up, and maybe, maybe, I'll be tempted to attend. they can't get the numbers up if they don't pay attention to who's competing, allow as many people to compete as possible, make sure everybody gets as many fights as they want, and quit making it look like something just to make money for other organizations. If they want a donation, they're going about it the wrong way.