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Judo championships draw blind and able-bodied competitors to Calgary

Hundreds of competitors and delegates hit the mats at Calgary's Olympic Oval over the long weekend for the Canadian Open Judo Championships.

And for the first time, the event also included more than 50 visually impaired athletes from six countries.

The International Blind Sports Federation combined their Pan-American Championships with the Canadian Open event, marking the first time the two have been held simultaneously.

Canadian visually impaired judoka Justin Karn is a big fan of combining the able-bodied and Paralympic events.

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"I think this is super important. The whole goal of the Paralympics is to have an even playing field with the Olympics. It should be on par with the Olympics," he said. "This is one very large step in the right direction."

Both Karn and his teammate, Priscilla Gagne, took home gold medals in their respective categories over the weekend, earning important points toward qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

The event is also a stepping stone toward the 2018 World Championships happening in Lisbon, Portugal in November.

Gagne won all three of her matches to win gold in Calgary.

"This is my second international gold medal in [visually impaired], and it means a lot because it helps with points with the world ranking and we're starting our qualifications pretty soon for the Paralympics," she said.

"It's good, confidence building"

The main difference between able-bodied and visually impaired judo is the starting position, explained Gagne.

"We start with a grip," she said. "So able-body, they start with no grip and far apart from each other. For VI, you start connected so you always have contact with each other and it's an equal connection."

Fighters also use the sound of the referee's voice to know when they are close to moving out of bounds during a match.

"Other than that, it's identical. We have all of the same submissions … really the only difference is in the rules on how you begin and connect," said Gagne.

Gagne — who has some peripheral vision but can't see most colours — usually has to train with able-bodied athletes as there are few visually impaired judokas.

This is the first time many of those sparring partners have watched her compete.

"It's extremely exciting because they get to see me train but they never get to see me compete," she said.

"It's exciting. I love being around people that I'm familiar with in competition."

Andrzej Sadej coaches the Paralympic Judo program and is sport director for Judo Canada

He says this lets them see how they'd stack up at an event like the Paralympics.

"It's very difficult to judge your own ability against visually impaired people when you train only with able-bodied people," he said.

And Sadej says working with visually impaired athletes gives him a different perspective.

"For me, it's a privilege to work with this group of people," he said.

"These are people who could complain about what they have to deal with … and most of those people have more joy of life and appreciation of everything that happens than able-bodied people like us, who mostly complain about things."

Full results of the International Blind Sports Federation's Pan-American Championships can be found here.