Silver after a five-day lull Azerbaijan at the Universiade in Germany

Last night, Azerbaijan’s medal tally at the World University Games currently underway in Germany grew to four. The latest addition was a silver medal in judo, won by last year’s European champion and current world bronze medallist Eljan Hajiyev.

The 23-year-old athlete started his campaign with confidence, defeating Brazil’s Guilherme Morais and Lithuania’s Augustus Sliteris ahead of time, followed by a semi-final victory over Hungary’s Nerpel. Just as it seemed that the unstoppable Hajiyev would storm to the gold, he unexpectedly lost in the final to South Korea’s Kim Jonghoon.

Still, although the defeat came as a surprise for the clear favourite of the final bout, such is the nature of sport, where sharp rises often alternate with painful setbacks. In the end, it was Hajiyev who ended Azerbaijan’s five-day medal drought, and thanks to his silver, the national team climbed from 16th to 13th place in the overall standings.

Notably, before Hajiyev’s appearance on the tatami, Azerbaijan’s judokas had only managed to place fifth at this Universiade — namely, Nariman Mirzayev (73 kg) and Aydan Valiyeva (52 kg). Interestingly, in Mirzayev’s weight category, victory went to an ethnic Azerbaijani representing Moldova, Adil Osmanov, a bronze medallist at the Paris Olympics, who blocked Nariman’s path to the semi-finals.

By the way, Azerbaijani judokas have previously claimed gold three times at the World University Games. These victories came in 2007 with Ramil Gasimov (66 kg), in 2009 with Ramin Gurbanov (81 kg), and in 2017 with Zelim Kotsoiev (100 kg). It’s a damn shame that Eljan couldn’t follow in their footsteps.

As for other performances by Azerbaijani athletes, we’ve already spoken about the disastrous failure of our table tennis players and swimmers. We sincerely hope that reforms within the Swimming Federation will finally put an end to the trend where our swimmers’ main goal seems to be simply “reaching the finish line,” and that in table tennis, we’ll stop being dazzled by hollow victories at third-rate junior tournaments.

As for the taekwondo athletes, there are some serious concerns. True, the top members of the team are not students and thus couldn’t represent our country in Germany. But the same applies to the leading athletes of other teams — meaning everyone was competing under equal conditions. And the fact that we came away with only three fifth-place finishes instead of medals can only be seen as a failure. This is especially disappointing considering the stature of Mammad Abdullayev, the head coach of our team — a respected expert and, incidentally, the only Azerbaijani head coach among all Olympic sports in the country.

The Universiade is drawing to a close, and with every passing hour, our chances of adding another gold medal grow slimmer. For now, Azerbaijan’s tally stands at four medals — two gold and two silver — with hopes still alive for a strong finish to this wonderful gathering of the world’s best student athletes.

By Vugar Vugarli, exclusively for Caliber.Az