Judo's stance is still unclear

The Irish Judo Association yesterday failed to clarify whether they would be voting for their former president and current president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), Pat Hickey, in February 15th's OCI elections.

The judo association surprisingly refused to nominate Hickey for the position of president when he sought their support last Monday night at a meeting in Nenagh.

Judo nominated their current treasurer, Michael Power, for an executive position on the board. That did not exclude them from also nominating Hickey for president. The statement does not explain why they failed to nominate Hickey for that position.

The statement, however, does acknowledge Hickey's contribution to judo and Irish sport but does not state whether the association will now support him in his campaign against Irish Sailing presidential candidate Richard Burrows.

The association did, however, say that they felt Hickey would be nominated without their support and that they had decided to put their efforts into supporting their own candidate, Power. Hickey was nominated by nine other federations for the presidency.

"The Irish Judo Association wish to acknowledge the excellent contribution of its former president and current OCI president, Mr Pat Hickey, in developing and supporting Irish Judo and indeed Irish sport," said the statement.

"Given the level of support available to him within Irish Sport, the Irish Judo Association believe his nomination would never be an issue and on that basis they have decided to put all their efforts into nominating and supporting their own candidate for an executive position."

The sport will support Power for an executive position but they also have a vote on who they wish to be president and that is still open to speculation.

Nothing can be taken from the release save that judo are still unwilling to publicly declare their support for either Hickey or Burrows. In the last election in 1996 judo did nominate Hickey and support his campaign. This year's decision has been seen by the Burrows' camp as a significant change.

No one was available for comment from either the OCI or the Irish Judo Association. The statement did say that it was not judo's intention to release any further statements.