Between September 20 to 27 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 124 countries competed at the 55th edition of the Senior IJF World Championships.

 Africa with its 27 representatives did not grab any medal. Out of the 93 judokas from the continent who took part at the National Gymnastics Arena of Baku, Morocco had the biggest african delegation with 11 athletes; 5 men and 6 women; Cameroon with 2 men and 5 women.

Seychelles with Finesse Naintenaina in the men's 90 kg and Gambia's Njie Faye in the men's 73 kg were the least represented countries with one athlete each.

Asmaa Niang from Morocco in the women's 70 kg alongside Egyptian Darwish Ramadan in the men's 100 kg had honourable performances with their exits at the Bronze medal matches synonyms of a five place rank.

The Moroccan lost the third place-contest to Colombia's Yuri Alvear after she was beaten in the semi final match by France's Marie Eve Gahié, while Russian Niyaz Illiasov denied the Egyptian judoka a place on the podium.

Any african athlete is yet to win a medal since Tunisian Fayçal Al Jaballah won the bronze in the +90 kg category at the 2013  IJF World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. He is the current African champion in the Men's+100kg category.

The best performance from an African athlete was registered in Munich in 2001, when Anis Lounifi from Tunisia won Gold in the Men's 60 kg category. He grabbed the bronze in the following edition in 2003 in Osaka, Japan.

Algeria hold the highest ever tally of medals from an African team with a total of two medals; one silver and one bronze recorded in Cairo, Egypt in 2005.

Japan finished the competition on top with a total of 17 medals; 8 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze followed by South Korea with 2 gold and 2 bronze medals. France occupy the third spot with 1 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze.

The next edition of the IJF World Championships will be held in 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.

Follow, Like us on Facebook and Twitter