Competition is the cutting edge of judo. The finest men and women judo fighters compete for the highest honours and in doing so push judo forward into new technical, tactical and fitness frontiers. This is as true of early champions such as Masahiko Kimura and Isao Okano as of recent gold medallists Toshihiko Koga and Ryoko Tamura.

50 GREAT JUDO CHAMPIONS celebrates these outstanding individuals whose talent. ambitions. determination and courage drove them to produce TheIr best at the moments of hightest tension.

Each champion has a dedicated section containing key biographic material background, the major competition successes, and the favourite techniques. There is also an extended essay on the personality and principal victories in competition.

Among them are the biographies of the two greatest heavyweights - Yasuhiro Yamashita, champion of the 1970s/1980s, and David Douillet, champion of the 1990s. Here are Karen Briggs and Ryoko Tamura, two of the greatest women fighters of the 1980s/1990s in judo's lightest category.

And each of these champions is illustrated by a series of outstanding pictures from the archives of specialist judo photographers David Finch and Bob Willinaham.

50 GREAT JUDO CHAMPIONS celebrates the founding of the International Judo Federation in 1951. Although there were international matches before then, and judo had already spread throughout the world, that date sets the official seal on international judo. The first European championships were held in Paris in 7951. The world championships followed in 1956. The Asian Games. the Pan-American Games and the Oceana Games took their regular place in the international competition calendar. And in 1964. iudo was seen in the Olvmpic Games for the first time.

From its beginnings in a small Buddhist temple in 1882, judo is now truly international. Competition, and the champions it produced, have played a significant role in achieving this.

Here, in this exciting volume of words and pictures, are 50 of the greatest.

SIMON HICKS is director and co-founder of Fighting Films, the leading judo television and video production company who were host broadcasters for the

1999 Birmingham world Judo championships. He shoots and directs the official International Judo Federation video records of the world and Olympic championships. He also coaches international fighters.

NICOLAS SOAMES is the founder of Ippon Books, the specialist judo publishing house. He has reported on every major Olympic, world and European championships, and many other events, for two decades, writing for leading newspapers and magazines, and is specialist judo adviser for BBC TV.

Length: 118 pages

Publication date: 2001