Brazilian, who arrived with a strong 80-member contingent, had won the Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, which was held in Abu Dhabi.

Forty countries with around 300 participants will fight for honours in the Abu Dhabi Judo Grand Prix 2009.

The two-day event will be held at the Al Jazira Sports Club and carries a total prize money of $200,000, which is the richest in the history of the sport.

The Middle East countries that are participating in the Grand Prix are Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, apart from the hosts UAE. The countries participating from Asia, Africa and other continents are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Congo, Mauritius, Brazil, Canada, China, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Japan, Italy, Luxembourg, Holland, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia and Spain.

The event is being held under the patronage of Shaikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC).

The championship will feature bouts in various weight divisions with the men clashing in seven different weight divisions, including 60kg, 66kg, 73kg, 81kg, 90kg, 100kg and above 100kg divisions. The women will also clash in seven divisions, including 48kg, 52kg, 57kg, 63kg, 70kg, 78kg and above 78kg divisions. The event has attracted great interest from the IJF-ranked wrestlers as the new IJF ranking system will start operating from the Abu Dhabi Judo Grand Prix 2009. Winners of the various weight divisions will take home a purse of $5,000 for the gold medallist, $3,000 for the silver medallist and $1,000 for the bronze medallist.

The overall best performer in the championship will pocket a prize of $30,000 in accordance with the new IJF system. Contestants have already arrived, including the senior officials of the International Judo Federation (IJF).

Having arrived in the country according to schedule, all the national teams have been training openly at auditorium of the UAE Wrestling, Judo and Jiu-Jitsu Association at Al Mushrif, here in Abu Dhabi according to the time allocated to each team except the Japanese team which decided to hold their training without allowing cameras.

The spectators are also in for some prizes as the organising committee has made arrangements for free entry ticket to the venue of the championship during which spectators will be given free raffle coupons for 20 raffle draws on each day of the two-day event. Prizes range from cash to electronics, air tickets to various destinations, etc, with the raffle draw of the grand prize of a luxurious sports car to be made on Saturday evening, the last day of the event.