KARACHI, Feb 13 Despite warnings of contempt of court by the Pakistan Women Judo Association (PWJA), the two-day Freshman 4th National Women Judo Championship-2010 organised by the Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) and the Sindh Judo Association (SJA) commenced at Gulshan-i-Iqbal's Women Sports Complex here on Saturday.

Samina Khan, president of the PWJA had obtained a stay order, restraining the president and other office-bearers of the PJF from interfering in the affairs of the PWJA back in July, 2009. But to her shock the PJF announced a national women's judo championship for mid February for which they also set up camp from Feb 8.

But despite her reminding them through the press of the stay order and warnings of the action being seen as contempt of court, PJF went ahead with its plans.

Speaking to Dawn on Saturday, President SJA Wasim Hashmi dismissed the PWJA president's claims to be baseless attempts to harm the sport and stop it from flourishing in the country.

“Yes, the championship is very much on. We already held four events on Saturday and the remaining four will take place on Sunday,” he informed.

“PWJA may have tried to get a stay order and everything last year but it never materialized therefore we found no barriers in our way for holding this healthy competition for female judokas here,” Mr Hashmi asserted.

The championship featuring four provincial teams as well as an Islamabad side along with the three departmental outfits of Army, Wapda and Police will also see the holding of a referee/judges course along the sidelines of the tournament.