A packed room, including athletes, coaches and legends of the sport, eagerly anticipated a draw in which 729 athletes found out their opening opponents and their path towards the gold medal matches in the Kazakh capital.

In total, 297 female judokas are set to compete in Astana while 432 men have been entered into the Championships organised by the International Judo Federation (IJF), with the men’s under 73 and 81 kilogram divisions both boasting a bumper field of 76 judokas, meaning competition for gold will be fierce.

One event in which there is guaranteed to be a new world champion is the women’s under 52kg division, as Kosovo’s Majlinda Kelmendi has been unable to overcome an injury and will not defend the title she won in Rio de Janeiro in 2013 and Chelyabinsk last year, meaning the focus now shifts to Romania’s Andreea Chitu.

Chitu currently occupies the world number one ranking and will seek to improve on her silver medal last year, but is likely to face the challenge of Russia’s Natalia Kuziutina and Brazil’s Erika Miranda.

The quality of the women’s fields are demonstrated by the fact that none of last year’s world champions currently occupy the number one ranking heading into the Championships.

Perhaps one of the most competitive will be the under 48kg event due to be held tomorrow, with defending champion Ami Kondo of Japan and Argentina’s Paula Pareto facing the prospect of meeting in this year’s semi-final.

The two find themselves in the same half of the draw after occupying second and third positions in the current world rankings behind Mongolia’s 2013 world champion Urantsetseg Munkhbat.

France’s Teddy Riner will be hoping that the men’s over 100kg division shows little unpredictability on the final day of individual competition, when he bids for an eighth world title in the division, a run stretching back to the 2007 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. 

Tunisia’s Faicel Jaballah and Russia’s Renat Saidov will be expected to provide the biggest challenge to Riner next Saturday (August 29) as they currently lie second and third respectively in the world rankings, while last year’s silver medallist Ryu Shichinohe of Japan will hope to gain revenge as the showpiece event is held in Kazakhstan for the first time.

The first competitors in the men’s events will be the under 60kg judokas, where all eyes will be one the defending champion Boldbaatar Ganbat of Mongolia.

The world number one is one of three men to be given a bye into the second round of tomorrow’s event and will face the winner of the bout between Albania’s Indrit Cullhaj and Turkey’s Bekir Ozlu, the second lowest ranked competitor in the competition.

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