Match duration during high-level judo competitions: Golden score or not?

Abstract

Background. Recent rule changes have led to alterations in the technical and tactical components of judo matches and athletes’ physical capacities. There have also been many changes regarding total match durations during high-level judo matches. Problem and aim. There is no study under the current refereeing rules that investigates both total match duration, and the factors leading to the competition continuing after the golden score. This study investigated the factors that affected total match duration during high-level judo matches. Methods. The data were obtained from a total of 5111 official judo matches during the latest two world championships (2018– 2019) and eight grand prix tournaments (2019). The Mann-Whitney-U test was used to determine the difference in total match duration between men and women, while differences among the weight categories were investigated using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The difference in the percentage of matches with or without a golden score according to weight categories was analysed by the Chi-square test. The factors leading to a match ending in a golden score were investigated using logistic binary regression analysis. Results. The total match duration decreased as the weight categories in both men and women increased. Likewise, increasing the weight category led to an increase in the percentage of t matches that ended before the official time and a decrease in normal match duration and matches that ended in the golden score. Sex did not affect this distribution. The possibility of a golden score in other weight categories was 2-3 times higher compared to heavyweight classes (OR=1.77-2.84, p=0.00). The lack of ippon score in the matches significantly increased the possibility of a golden score (OR=1.53, p=0.00). The possibility of a third waza-ari (2 vs 1) during a golden score was 3 times higher compared to the matches that ended before the official match duration (OR=3.12, p=0.00). Moreover, a waza-ari increased the possibility of matches ending before or at normal match duration by1.3 times while two waza-ari increased it by 5.54 times. The possibility of a golden score in the matches with a shido was higher compared to those without a shido. This possibility increased more as long as the number of penalties increased. Conclusions. The total duration of the matches was affected by weight categories, the number of scores, and penalties. In particular, receiving a shido was found to be an important factor in terms of a longer match duration. The increase in weight categories led to a shorter match duration. The investigation of the match duration and the factors affecting it within the current refereeing rules can contribute to coaches and athletes developing training plans and match tactics.