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| Driton Kuka and Distria Krasniqi after winning golden Olympic Games in Toky |
Distria, Olympic champion in the category up to 48 kilograms was honored with the award "Female Judoka of the Year", while coach Kuka was honored with the award "Coaching Achievement of the Year".
Distria has been declared the best in the world in a very strong competition. Uta Abe of Japan, Anna Maria Wagner of Germany, Jessica Klimkai of Canada and Clarisse Agbegnenou of France were also nominated for the award.
During the presentation of the nominees, Distria expressed very happy that he was appreciated alongside these judokas.
"I am very happy to have been nominated, to be among the top five. I am proud of the successes I have achieved. "My appearance has been improving during this year and I feel very, very good that I am nominated", said Krasniqi.
She did not hide her surprise even when she was declared the winner.
"I did not expect to be honest. I didn't expect it at all. I thank all those who voted for me. This motivates me to be even better ", said Krasniqi.
Driton Kuka has also been named coach of the year in a strong Saturday competition. Besides him, the Austrian Yvonne Boenisch, the Swedish Robert Eriksson, the Japanese Kosei Inoue and the French Larbo Benboudaoud and Christophe Gagliano (as a team) were also nominated for this award.
Kuka also considers his nomination alongside the best coaches in the world a privilege and expressed pride in the achievements of Kosovar judokas during 2021.
"I am very happy. It is a great privilege to be in the top five coaches in the world. It is very important. Each of us deserved to be declared the best. I am really happy that this award goes to my country, Kosovo. It is an award for our small state and the good people it has. I know we have had great support in the vote, we are a new state and everyone wants the best for us. I am very excited about this award. There have been teams with better results than Kosovo, but if we look at the number of population, I believe we have done a good job. I am happy and excited. I want to wish my colleagues and I wish them all the best in the future", said Kuka.
Driton Kuka has extraordinary merits that the two Kosovar judokas, Distria Krasniqi and Nora Gjakova, brought home medals from the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The award ceremony for the best in the sport of judo for 2021, "Judo Awards 2021", took place on Saturday, in a virtual ceremony of the IJF.