The Malta Judo Federation (malta.judo.com) has just organised the national championships in Kata. The event was held at the St Aloysius Sports Complex.

A special guest for the occasion was Giovanni Strazzeri, president of the Sicilian Region of Judo.

Strazzeri, an international judge, was also invited to act as arbitrator for the championships.

This event brought together the top martial artists from local judo clubs and was also a build-up to the World Kata Championships which will be staged at the Cottonera Sports Complex between October 17 and 18.

A recent introduction to the sport is the Judo Show.

This competition gives the opportunity to a team, composed from two to six judokas, to give a three-minute demonstration on the competition and self defence aspects of the sport.

Judo Show is gaining in popularity and is now well established in the European Championships.

The couples in action at St Aloysius, some of whom will be taking part in the World Championships, were:

Nage No Kata - John and Jerome Zammit, Keith Galea and George Fabri; Katame No Kata - Joe Muscat and Joe Bonello; Ju No Kata - Joe Bonello and Ivan Esposito; and Judo Show - John Sevasta and Keith Darmanin.

During his stay in Malta, Strazzeri also conducted a seminar where the performances from the National Championships were analysed in detail.

Strazzeri went through each movement with the athletes, discussing how every move could enhance their performance.

At the World Championships, Malta will play host to athletes from 25 countries from all parts of the globe.

Preliminaries will start at 9.30 a.m. on Day One and 10 a.m. on Day Two. The top six couples will qualify for the finals in the afternoon on both days.