The five-day event is the sport's final World Championships of the year and will see athletes aged between 15 and 21 years old competing at the Stožice Centre for a share of the $100,000 (£615,000/€730,000) prize pot, split between individual and team medallists, and the chance to be named World Champion in their particular weight category.

Among the athletes hoping to take home the gold is Britain's Philip Awiti Alcaraz.

The 20-year-old has five junior European Cup golds under his belt, but the competition in Slovenia will be his last chance to grab a junior world medal before embracing senior competition full-time.

"I feel good about the Junior Worlds and hopefully with a bit of luck I can get a good result," he said.

"I have been training hard and putting a lot of work in the run up towards and I am hungry for this result."

Hoping to stop the Briton in the -100kg division will be former Cadet World Championship silver medallist Toma Nikiforov of Belgium.

The former European Youth Olympic Festival winner will be one of the most experienced judoka in the tournament having competed in a number of senior events throughout the year, including a seventh place finish in the senior European Championships.

The Championships will be held at the the Stožice Centre and will see 611 judoka
from 75 countries competing

This added experience will give him plenty of confidence coming into the competition, which, as with Alcaraz, will be his last at junior level.

The draw for the competition was held earlier today at the Austrian Trend Hotel and opened with a welcoming address from the President of the Slovenian Judo Federation, Bogdan Gabrovec.

"All the judo family is going to meet here to feel the excitement and enthusiasm of judo by watching all of the elite junior judoka of the world compete," he said.

"We are honoured to host this great event in the year when we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Judo Federation of Slovenia."

Gabrovec was joined by the secretary general of the International Judo Federation (IJF), Jean-Luc Rougé, who spoke on behalf of IJF and SportAccord President Marius Vizer, currently in St Petersburg for the SportAccord World Combat Games.

"I want to thank Bogdan for organising the event, it is not easy, Slovenia is not the biggest country but we know they are very capable and we know their capacity," he said.

"I wish good luck to all the athletes; you are building the champions of the future."

The Championships will be getting underway officially at 10:00 local time in Slovenia, with the preliminary rounds of the men's -55kg and -60kg weight divisions and the women's -40kg and -48kg.

The finals off all the day's events will then get take place from 17:00 local time, with the process repeated through until Saturday (October 26), before the team competition takes place on Sunday (October 27).

To watch the latest action on Judo TV click here.

Images©IJF Media Team by G. Sabau

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]