Back in from the cold, Russian judokas eye Paris Olympics

DOHA: After returning to international competition at the world championships in Doha following a ban in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian judokas are now eyeing next year's Paris Olympics.

Competing under neutral flags, the Russians have struggled to land titles but Arman Adamian broke their duck Friday in Doha winning -100kg gold.

After his win the Russian flag was replaced for the ceremony with a banner of the competition and the anthem played was that of the International Judo Federation rather than Russia's.

Adamian's tunic also bore the letters AIN for Independent Neutral Athletes rather than Russia.

Asked about how he felt about that, Adamian said simply: "No comment".

"They understand that they come here as an individual because it is the rule from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). We understand but we hope the situation will change," Russian federation press chief Maria Tikhonravova told AFP.

Russians and Belarusians at the tournament say they have been well received by competitor nations.

"Judo is a big friendly family," said Adamian.

"When I arrived, I met people from the IJF, EJU (the European federation), and also from international teams and everybody was ready to say thank you for coming, we really missed you and they hope that we will stay here for other competitions until the Olympic Games," said Tikhonravova.

The return of the Russians sparked the withdrawal of Ukraine from the worlds but there was no repeat of what happened at the boxing worlds when several other nations pulled out in protest.

The Polish judo federation did say initially it was "shocked" but then sent its athletes to Doha with the Olympic qualification process under way.

Germany said it would have hoped for a