Why was the Openweight dropped from Judo ?

Jonesy wrote:
I have done randori with Peter Seisenbacher at the London Budokwai. It was newaza only but can attest to him being spectacularly strong - unbelievably so.

The most notable open weight success is of course Isao Okano who twice won the All Japan's as a middleweight.

Okano amazing of course, but didn't Koga make the finals one year? Even though he lost, making the finals at 71k is pretty successful.

Hi davidn

Koga was runner up at the All Japan open weight in 1990.

The difference to Okano:

Koga got his wins over the heavyweights by not being thrown and being active, therefore wins by hantei.

Okano on the other hand threw the heavyweights quite regularly, winning by Ippon and Waza-ari.

Koga at the All Japan 1990:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtYk7NIeM_g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmBWKoo0bys

Final against Ogawa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_BYs7zFUOg&t=10m10s

Nethertheless an incredible performance!

While not a fan of "what if" statements ... I do wonder if heavyweights are getting stronger over time ... and more skilled? Not just heavier.

BillC wrote:While not a fan of "what if" statements ... I do wonder if heavyweights are getting stronger over time ... and more skilled?  Not just heavier.

Fantasy Fight-Off, Heavyweight division
Maeda
Kimura
Geesink
Yamashita Yasuhiro
Riner
Kronos (of Rigel 7)

Been looking for this Doctor, who's supposed to hang around near a blue phone booth (that only calls the police?).
Apparently he can help set it up, but for a guy who lives in a phone booth he's hard to reach.

Hi BillC

I do wonder if heavyweights are getting stronger over time ... and more skilled? Not just heavier.

From my point of view the technically most skilled heavyweights were

Parisi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSgVNeVoW3A

Yamashita

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dMHxeCdpFs

Tmenov

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WrziXxd1vY

Muneta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU8Rym-OpaI

Suzuki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NDJvkFz4ro

The smartest heavyweight:

Mikhailin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S70yAeCmqv0

BillC wrote:While not a fan of "what if" statements ... I do wonder if heavyweights are getting stronger over time ... and more skilled?  Not just heavier.

I would bet that they are stronger over time kilo for kilo - reflecting modern nutrition notions, equipment and training regimes.

Just looked at the results of Open weight Worldchampionships 1985 - 2010

and there were no medal winners not being heavyweights with two exceptions:

WC 2003 Osaka: Keji Suzuki - Gold

WC 2001 Munich: Ariel Zeevi - Silver

In the 70's there were a few Judoka -93kg, who could compete with the heavyweights like

Van de Walle (1981)

Lorenz (won the open weight olympic games 1980 Moscow but ...)

Ninomyia

Chochisvili

Parisi

Sekine

It seems, that from the 80's on, you only had a chance in open weight division if you were a real heavyweight.