Paris Open webcast

 Watching the finals of the Paris Open webcast. The production values are very good. Very professional.



Wang beat Akimoto in the 73kg final for Gold  Emane just won the 63kg final.

See any application of the new rules so far?

 Just started watching today's action.  They just announced Travis Stevens is in the semi-finals and will medal!





I only watched a few matches yesterday. It starts pretty early on the West Coast. I did not see hansoku make. Athletes have adapted for the rules.  From what I've seen, the athletes who direct attack when cross gripped are not getting penalized.. There are more golden scores because there is no koka.



You should watch it. Its on right now. Trying to type between mattes.



212.227.96.120/index_offline.php





 

 Rajabli in the quarterfinals of 81kg just got HSM for a leg grab in golden score. It is the 3rd match i've watched so far.



They just took a break and will be back in one hour. Matches still going on.

 

 In the 78kg semifinal between Japan and France, the French player gets HSM for grabbing the leg when the Japanese player faked an o uchi gari attack.

 The soft ippon is still here.  Van Der Geest and Riner win their matches against the Georgian and Korean in the semi-finals with very soft ippons off counters.



I would think that the awarding of these soft ippons is inconsistent with the IJF's stated goal of returning to more spectacular judo.

 

 Guilheiro (BRA) defeats Tsiklauri (GEO) in golden score by shido in 81kg final.



Decosse (FRA) defeats Meszarus (HUN) by ippon in 70kg final.  Forty five seconds into the match Decosse throws Meszarus with o uchi gari for yuko. A little more than two minutes into the match she counters Meszarus with a beautiful ko soto gari for ippon.



Ono (JPN) defeats Choriev (UZB) by ippon in 90kg final.  1:50 into the contest Ono throws Choriev with a sensational uchimata.



Ogata (JPN) defeats Anai (JPN) by ippon in the 78kg final.   With 17 seconds left in the match Ogata throws Anai with a strong Ko Soto Gake to win the match. Just prior she had attempted the same throw for no score.



Van Der Geest (NED)  defeats Samoylovich (RUS) by ippon in the 100kg final.  Down by yuko he throws Samoylovich with what I'll call tani otoshi as he counters Samoylovich's left side ko uchi gari attack. Samoylovich is real slow to withdraw his attacking left leg and gets countered by Van Der Geest.



Ivashchenko (RUS) defeats Chikhrouhou (TUN) by waza-ari in the +78kg final.  This was a penalty fest with 3 penalties for Chikhrouhou versus 2 for Ivashchenko.



Riner (FRA) defeats Vuijsters (NED) by waza-ari in the +100kg final. Vuijsters picks up three penalties against Riner.  Riner does have a nice o uchi gari attack 1:56 into the match  that is called yuko by the ref, but is waived off by the side judges.



The production values of the webcast were again excellent. Great commentary, lots of instant replays and different angles and shots shown of the action. Overall, I think the referees did a very good job applying the current rule structure. The IJF has done its homework on how to webcast these Grand Prix events, and it shows.

   

OC, while the IJF may have spent lots of time and done a good job with webcasts, and I would assume carryover to video/TV, the rules weaknesses will continue to hurt judo.

 CS,  I was merely commenting on the production values of the product. I thought it was presented in a very professional manner. 



I do not agree with the recent rule changes, but that doesn't take away from when the IJF does a good job. While we criticize when we think they are misguided, it is also proper to praise them when they do things well.



While I think the rule changes can hurt the sport, it is yet to be proven; and results won't be known for some time.

OC, I don't know, I have problems getting webcasts on my computer. However, many of the matches do end up on the Judovision website, which I think shows a very good quality in general for the videos. In that, I am appreciative, since it exposes more matches for me to watch.