Disappointing start for Azerbaijan at Judo World Championship No medals after three days

The first three days of the Judo World Championship have brought disappointing, I would even say, disheartening results for the Azerbaijani judokas.

By the way, when making predictions about our team’s performance at the World Championship, I warned that we shouldn’t expect much from the women’s team at all, and that things were not as good as we would like in the men’s team either.

Indeed, failures—starting with the match of Ahmad Yusifov (60 kg)—have come pouring down like from a cornucopia. Yes, Ahmad had a very tough opponent—the Japanese Ryūji Nagayama. But, firstly, our judokas seemed to have already overcome the “Japanese syndrome” long ago. And secondly, with all due respect to the Japanese competitor, he is at least a “head below” his legendary predecessor in this weight class—Naohisa Takato, the Olympic champion and four-time world champion, who was truly almost unbeatable.

Ahmad literally scored a “waza-ari” in the very first minute of the match and… for some reason completely stopped attacking, which rightfully led to disastrous consequences — three “shido” penalties and a loss. A defeat for which Yusifov should primarily blame himself. Although I would not absolve the coaching staff either, who failed to instil in the judoka that he cannot relax for three minutes, hoping for a lucky break. By the way, the Japanese athlete who defeated Yusifov went on to become world champion for the first time.

As for our women, on the first day, they limited themselves to an easy stroll, practically turning into “tourists” right away, who will now have plenty of time to enjoy the sights of Budapest. Konul Aliyeva (48 kg) lost her very first match, and Leyla Aliyeva lost the second.

On the second day of the competition, Ruslan Pashayev (66 kg) stepped onto the tatami, unfortunately fully confirming my prediction, passing only two rounds before losing to the first Japanese opponent he faced — Takeshi Takeoka, who also later became world champion for the first time. After all, the undisputed favourite in this weight class — two-time Olympic champion Hirofumi Abe — shockingly lost to the Tajik “unknown” Obid Dzhebov, suffering his first defeat in six years! So, had Ruslan beaten Takeoka, he would have at least reached the final.

But history, as is well known, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, and the fact remains: Pashayev lost and ended up without medals, as did Gultaj Mamedaliyeva (52 kg), who joined our women’s “tourist group” by losing her very first match to the Cypriot “unknown” Sofia Asvesta.

On the third day of the tournament, that is, yesterday evening, we rightly expected that this time there would be no way for us to miss out on medals. After all, the undisputed king of the under-73 kg weight category (he had been so until the previous evening), the clear champion of last season, and still number one in the world rankings (despite a ten-month break from competition) — Hidayat Heydarov — was stepping onto the Budapest tatami! And when he lost his very first match, falling childishly to his opponent’s “yuko” — the Portuguese-Georgian Otari Kvantidze — in the first seconds, neither commentators, nor spectators, nor it seems even Otari himself could believe this defeat. But, as they say, that doesn’t make it any easier for us. It is simply disheartening that Heydarov, with all his greatness and fighting spirit, could not break his opponent’s resistance despite having enough time — more than a minute!

Meanwhile, Rashid Mammadaliyev, competing in the same weight category, lost by conceding his opponent’s throw just six seconds (!) before the end of the match — and this happened in the quarterfinals! And I won’t even mention his subsequent loss to another Japanese judoka, Tatsuki Ishihara...

Nor will I mention yet another first-round defeat of one of our women’s team members — Fidan Alizade lost to Marika Perisic from Serbia and ended her participation.

Thus, in the first three days of the tournament, nearly half of our team — seven athletes — competed but failed to bring home even a single medal. Among them were both our unquestioned medal hopes (Hidayat Heydarov and Rashid Mammadaliyev) and the utterly hopeless (the entire women’s foursome). So, head coaches Amina Abdulatif and especially Richard Trautmann have much to ponder ahead of the looming catastrophe. Although I sincerely hope it won’t come to that, and that Zelym Kotsoiev (100 kg) will still be able to do what he has repeatedly done before — “hit the stick for everyone” in the final days of the championship...

By Vugar Vugarli, exclusively for Caliber.Az