The country won 46 medals; 11 in gold, 13 in silver and 22 in bronze.

The Yaounde judo international tournament ended on Sunday May 30th with Cameroon emerging the overall champion. Cameroonian athletes won a total of 46 medals; 11 gold, 13 silver and 22 bronze. Athletes from Congo Republic came distant second with a total booty of eight medals; 2 gold, one silver and five bronze. Gabon came in the third position with just one medal won in gold. Australia was represented by Jerome Morfaw with Cameroonian roots who sustained an injury and therefore couldn’t continue the competition. Australia consequently came fourth and last with no medal won.

The competition was however tinted by the failure of many countries to attend. From about ten countries that were expected, only three turned up. However, the president of the judo federation insists it was a success banking on the quality and not the quantity of participants. A view that was corroborated by the International Judo Federation expert, Henk Plugg who supervised the competition as he claimed the level of the competition was high.

According to Cythia Tchapi Vainc of Congo who won the bronze medal in the -57kg category, the referees exercised partiality in favour of Cameroonian athletes and the Cameroonian athletes had an edge over them because they were acquainted to the new rules of the international federation whereas the other competitors were updated in a seminar on the eve of the competition. The federation has to be commended for providing state of the art equipment for the athletes and for organizing the competition with their own resources.