These past few days have seen the IBSA Judo Grand Prix take place in Tashkent in Uzbekistan with 175 athletes from 35 countries.

IBSA is the International Blind Sports Federation and these competitions are for athletes that are visually impaired, either partly or totally.

The atmosphere in Tashkent was mesmerising, with many seats in the brand new Humo Arena were filled showing the support there is for IBSA Judo in Uzbekistan.

This is also a first for Cyprus as it is the first time we have sent a visually impaired athlete to an international Judo competition and we were represented by our athlete Costas Tsingis in the-73 Kg category.

Costa came up against the Ukrainian athlete Rafat Mahomedov – a very experienced athlete and this showed when he threw Costas in the first minute for Ippon.

We all need to start somewhere to gain experience and this was a good “baptism of fire” for Costa at one of the toughest IBSA competitions on the calendar.

Well done to Costa – you made up proud by being there and representing Cyprus.

Accompanying Costa was his personal coach Stanislav Jankovic, Sports Director of the Federation

Cyprus Judo Federation – We Have A Dream!