Baku, Azerbaijan, and Cagliari, Italy, have been announced as the hosts of the respective 2022 International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Judo World and European Championships.

The two events – amongst the biggest on the sport’s calendar – will see judoka fight for titles and world ranking points on their road to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

Baku 2022 will take place from 7-9 November. Baku has staged several successful Grand Prix in the past and will now have the chance to host the World Championships for the first time. Both individual and team events will feature on the programme.

The 2022 IBSA Judo European Championships were meant to be held in 2021, but the sport committee postponed the competition following the rescheduling of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. The Euros will be held from 2-9 September in Cagliari, the second consecutive time Italy has hosted the Europeans following on from the 2019 edition in Genova.

Both competitions will follow the recently announced Grand Prix calendar which will take in venues in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Antalya, Turkey, will open the season from 23-25 April, followed by Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, from 28-29 May. Sao Paulo, Brazil, will give athletes the final chance to put the finishing touches to their preparations for the Worlds and Euros from 2-3 July.

Judo will also feature at the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, from 9-15 October.

The full IBSA Judo calendar for 2022 can be viewed by clicking here.

In addition to the officially sanctioned Grand Prix, regional and World Championships, a competition in Alexandria, Egypt will offer classification under the new system for IBSA Judo.

Teams are reminded that no judoka will be offered a classification slot without submitting the new Medical Diagnostics Form six weeks before the first day of classification, without exception. The IBSA Judo Medical Diagnostics form can be downloaded by clicking here.