Judo competitors young and old will have a chance to fight for their country in Apia this weekend.
About 100 athletes from 15 countries will compete over the next two days with world ranking and Olympic qualification points up for grabs in the revamped Oceania Open.
But as competition director Francois Martel tells Vinnie Wylie, it's not just for young ones anymore.
FRANCOIS MARTEL: We have a one day first inaugural masters competition. This is for athletes that are between 30 and 65 years old. It goes all the way to 85, but our oldest competitor was 65.
VINNIE WYLIE: In terms of picking up points towards the Rio Olympics, is it a matter of certain points are available this weekend and competitors will accumulate those points as the events go on?
FM: There's two things. For this particular one here, the focus for the Australian and the Commonwealth countries, I think at the moment this tournament is probably one of the two or three that will count towards points for the Commonwealth Games selection. So we have a lot of Commonwealth countries this year - we have Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain, Hong Kong, and of course Australia, New Zealand and Canada. These are the strongholds of judo in the Commonwealth, but then this also is used for the world ranking list for the International Judo Federation on the way to Rio.
VW: What's different about the masters tournament? Is this just a way of encouraging the older generation of competitors to be involved or does this have any greater bearing on any other events for them?
FM: Yes, there's a complete revamping by the International Judo Federation to actually keep judo alive with the former competitors. There's a World Veterans championship. There's a World Grand Masters. There's also a World Kata Championship. So all these are part of masters. And Oceania has never really organised itself for veterans. This is the first step and we've just nominated a Veterans Commissioner whose role will be to actually develop the veterans sport. Because it's a sport we can do all the way up to 85 years old and we can still compete and also do kata demonstrations. So now that there's a possibility for the older ones like me - I'm reaching 60, but still with a black belt and still doing judo - to be able to compete for your country in these events means that we may still have a chance to win medals for the islands.
VW: What about the quality of competitors in the Pacific? Where do you see that at the moment compared to how it may have been in the past? Is it strong at the moment?
FM: We have countries like Fiji, like Guam, that would have really strong potential, including Samoa, as well, Tonga. But we're still a bit behind in terms of training, ability to be able to train and also to travel for gaming competition. We can reach all the way up to black belt, but we have difficulty competing at the regional and international level because of the cost of transport and things like that. But it's a great way to develop the sport, having a competition here in Samoa.
