Federations Roundup -- Boxing World Championships Starts Tuesday; Judo Worlds End

Mediolanum Forum, a popular venue for concerts and sporting events, is the venue for the AIBA world championships. (EAA) The first bouts get underway Tuesday morning in the 2009 AIBA Boxing World Championships being held in Milan.

More than 620 boxers are expected for the preliminary rounds from a record number of countries, 143, 38 more than the last championships in 2007, hosted in Chicago. AIBA President C.K. Wu says the increase can be attributed to $300,000 in training grants that have paid for boxers from a number of developing nations to come to Italy ahead of the championship.

For the past six weeks, boxers in this program have been training in Assisi, site of the training camp for the Italian team.

The Mediolanum Forum, an 11,000 seat entertainment arena 20 km south of Milan, will be the venue for the boxing championships. At the side of the autostrada, the Mediolanum Forum is easy to access for spectators driving to the event.

Major sponsors include Kia Motors, Sharp, Caseo Wines and the Regional Government of Lombardy.

Opening ceremony is Monday evening at the Arena Civica, a 200 year-old amphitheater near the center of the city.

At least 10 IOC members are expected for the opening of the boxing, including executive board members Gerhard Heiberg, Lambis Nicolaou and EB candidates Patrick Hickey, Craig Reedie and Mounir Sabet. Count AIBA President Wu among the hopefuls, too.

Representatives from the four 2016 Olympics bids are also in Milan.

Japanese Men Disappoint at Judo WorldsYasuyuki Muneta, the only Japanese male judoka to win a gold at the 2007 world championships, failed to win one this year. (Getty Images)

Japan’s judo chiefs vow to reverse the decline in fortunes of their male judokas after the men’s squad went home from the world judo championships in Rotterdam without a gold medal. It’s the first time in the event’s 53-year history that the men’s squad failed to win titles.

The disappointment comes a year after the men’s lackluster display at the Beijing Olympics where they collected just two medals, both gold.

By the close of the world championships Sunday, the Japanese men had won only one silver medal and a bronze. They also failed to reach the quarter-finals in the other five weight categories.

Yasuyuki Muneta, who picked up the only gold for Japanese men at the 2007 worlds, lost to Mongolia's Gankhuyag Dorjpalam in the third round of the over-100kg division; Teddy Riner of France went on to successfully defended his 2007 heavyweight title. Takamasa Anai salvaged some pride for the Japanese by winning bronze in the under-100kg class.

Japanese men's coach Shinichi Shinohara believes the men’s squad will bounce back stronger at next year’s world champs in Tokyo.

"We will return to the basics and train ourselves from zero," he was quoted by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. "We must change something although we may not see any outcome soon. I cannot tell easily what we should change."

It was left to the Japanese women’s team to give the judo fans in the sport’s homeland something to celebrate. They impressed in winning three golds and two bronzes at the Rotterdam worlds.

Olympic champion Tong Wen of China won the women's over-78kg heavyweight title after beating Britain’s Karina Bryant. Tong was the only 2008 Beijing Olympic champion either male or female to win a title in Rotterdam.

Another notable medal over the weekend came when Dutch female judoka Marhinde Verkerk won gold in the under 78 kilos final to rapturous applause from her home crowd.

The 26th world judo championships were held over five days at the Ahoy Arena in the Dutch port city, with women contesting 229 fights and men 351 fights in a total of 14 weight categories. The International Judo Federation announced that more than 50 percent of fights were won by ippon.

The next major event on the IJF calendar is the World Junior Championships, which take place in Paris Oct. 22-25.

Archery Federation Makes Changes Ahead of World Champs

The mascot of the FITA world championships, Tabi. Mixed teams competitions are among a raft of changes approved by the 48th International Archery Federation (FITA) Congress ahead of the World Archery Championships starting in Ulsan, Korea on Tuesday.

From April next year, the mixed team competitions trialed as exhibition matches in 2009 will be officially introduced. This new competition teams one man and one woman who shoot four ends of four arrows in a match.

A new format of competitions with set plays also comes into force next April. Archers will have to win three sets to win their matches. Each end of three arrows will count as a set. Tie-breaks may still be needed.

The congress also rubber-stamped the hit-miss scoring for compound in a bid to give more identity to the compound division and differentiate FITA competitions.

Archers’ accuracy will be tested with the new scoring system, with athletes shooting at 50 meters with a very challenging hit zone. The set system will also apply. To allow time for archers to adapt, the hit-miss system will be first introduced in the World Cup next year and only made official for the worlds from April 2011.

World archery chiefs also made decisions to give more time for youth to develop in the sport. The cadets will now be able to shoot in this category until 17-years-old and juniors until they reach 20 years.

The changes, coming into force in January, aim to help the transition from youth to elite level in the sport. It’s also in line with the participation of youngsters in the inaugural summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore next August.

The 45th World Archery Championships run from Sept. 1-9. About 1,000 athletes from 80 countries are participating. The Korean city last staged the championships in 1985.

Rowing World Championships End

The favorites faired well in the 2009 World Rowing Championships that concluded Sunday in Poznan, Poland with 945 athletes from 53 countries participating the last regatta.

Poland men's quad, the 2008 Olympic champion, pleased the crowd by taking its fourth consecutive world championship on its home waters.

"We are very happy. This is our fifth title, which is great," said Jelinski in a release. "It's a fantastic victory, especially since this is my home town and it's in front of our home crowd."

In the women's eight, the United States continued to add to their success by adding its second consecutive championship in addition to its gold medal in Beijing.

Germany was tops in the medal tally with nine medals including four gold, one silver and four bronze. New Zealand was second with four gold and one bronze, while Great Britain was third winning three golds, five silver, and one bronze.

In Paralympic rowing, four world records were set in the Adaptive men's single sculls, Adaptive women's single sculls, Adaptive double sculls, as well as the Adaptive coxed four.

Six-time Olympian Vaclav Chalupa of the Czech Republic retired after winning a silver medal in the men's coxed with his rowing partner Jakub Makovick. Chalupa's faced for more than 20 years with his first Olympics coming in 1988. He won a silver medal in single skulls in Barcelona

With reporting from Mark Bisson, Sam Steinberg, and Ed Hula.