They are to take part in the Africa Open which offers qualification points for the Rio Olympics.

About a dozen athletes of the judo national team accompanied by two trainers will leave the country this weekend for Tunis to take part in the Africa Open tournament which serves as qualification for the Olympic Games this year in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil. The judo team will be leaving on Cameroon January 13^th well ahead of the beginning of the competition on January 17^th so as to get acquainted to the climate.

According to the president of the Cameroon judo federation, Alain Kingue, the objective of Cameroon is to take part in many competitions as possible so as to improve on the classification of Cameroonian athletes since only the first 30 of the world ranking qualify for the games, that is, the first 22 boys and the first 14 girls. After which only the first of each continent qualifies for the world event. As of now most Cameroonian are in the forties on the world classification hence the need to gain about twenty places on the classification sheet so as to qualify for the global sports jamboree.

The qualifiers for the Olympic Games in judo will end of May 30^th but before then, there will be other competitions to enable athletes grab points for qualification. Prominent among them are the Grand Prix Havana to take place in Cuba, Grand slam of France, Test event Aquece Rio international tournament, Africa Open Casablanca, the African championship and a host of other tournaments.

Meanwhile the federation has adopted its calendar of activities for the 2016 sports season. According to the programme, the new season will be launched on March 13 with a criterium for minors under the age of 12. The programme also provides for several training opportunities for athletes, referees and trainers, the hosting of the Yaounde International Judo tournament, board meetings and several national and international competitions. However, the high point of the season will be the elective general assembly slated for December 17^th since this happens to be the last year of the Olympiad.