Azerbaijan’s first medal at the World Championship Bronze for us, the rest for you!

The fourth day of the World Championship finally brought a long-awaited medal to Azerbaijani judo. It was won by one of the most talented yet unlucky, resilient yet inconsistent masters of the tatami. Yes, that is exactly who he is — the newly crowned bronze medalist of the World Championship in the under 81 kg weight category, Zelim Tckayev.

As I emphasised before the tournament began, Zelim is a judoka capable of losing his very first match or, conversely, after winning his first bout, reaching the medal rounds. This is exactly what happened last evening when Zelim, after defeating the Chinese Wang, caught a wave of momentum and, winning consecutively against Luan Almeida (Brazil) and the world number one in this weight class, Joonhwan Lee (South Korea), advanced to the semifinal.”

And here, once again, Zelim Tckayev’s extreme inconsistency showed itself in full. He was unable to overcome Tato Grigalashvili (Georgia), who was thoroughly exhausted from his quarterfinal match against the Belgian Matthias Casse. Although some responsibility lies with the coaching staff, who failed to provide Zelim with the right mindset. His opponent — despite being a three-time world champion — entered the match after only about 15 minutes of rest following his quarterfinal, which he won only in overtime with a “golden score.”

Instead of simply trying to tire out his opponent, Zelim started to engage in throwing exchanges, an area in which the Georgian has no equal in this weight category.

Looking ahead, I’ll say that what Zelim did not manage to do, Russian Timur Arbuzov accomplished in the final, completely exhausting the wounded and fatigued Grigalashvili and preventing him from winning a fourth world championship gold medal.

Fortunately, in the battle for the bronze — this time against a different Georgian, Nugzar Tatalashvili, who represents the UAE — our judoka showed another one of his qualities: resilience. After 4 minutes and 44 seconds of fighting in the golden score, he finally defeated his opponent.

Thus, to win Azerbaijan’s first medal at this tournament, Tckayev had to fight for a total of 8 minutes and 44 seconds in the decisive match! Truly a hard-earned medal for this charismatic 26-year-old guy who could pass for anything — an actor, an artist, a singer — but hardly a judoka.

Let me remind you that less than two months ago, Zelim also won a bronze medal at the European Championship, so now Tckayev is a two-time bronze medalist and finally consistent!

By the way, special thanks for this newfound consistency should go to his personal coach, Rashad Hasanov, who, after the Olympic Games in Paris—where his protégé lost in the very first match—did not let him lose heart. He even flew together with him to Budapest. It is truly valuable when athletes have people by their side whose priority is not just to make money from them, but to guide them on the right path and prevent them from straying under any circumstances.

As for today’s matches in the under 90 kg category, such coaches will surely be needed by Eljan Hajiyev and Vugar Talibov—undoubtedly talented but again extremely inconsistent judokas—who, with the right guidance, are capable of making an even bigger impact than Tckayev. 

Vugar Vugarli, exclusively for Caliber.Az