What can Azerbaijan’s judoka achieve on home soil? Caliber.Az’s prediction for the World Championships

With just a few days to go before the World Judo Championships get underway in Baku, with athletes from nearly 100 countries set to compete alongside the hosts, Caliber.Az traditionally presents its prediction ahead of this major tournament.

As hosts, our team has an advantage over the other participants in terms of the number of judoka entered for the tournament: Azerbaijan has been allocated nine additional quotas, meaning 23 judoka — six women and 17 men — will compete in front of the home crowd.

We will start with the men’s team, which, under head coach Richard Trautmann, will fight for World Championships medals under the roof of the National Gymnastics Arena. Although, let’s be honest, there are also some among them for whom this championship will be a case of “the important thing is not to win, but to take part”. However, Balabay Aghayev and Ahmad Yusifov, entered in the up-to-60kg category, clearly do not belong to that group.

Aghayev has recently acquired what he had previously lacked — consistency. He is no longer merely producing occasional flashes of brilliance, but has become a potential champion at virtually every tournament he enters. And this time is no exception: Aghayev is the highest-ranked favourite in his weight category, seeded No. 1, and is undoubtedly one of the two clear gold-medal contenders for our team at these championships.

As for Ahmad Yusifov, if he can make it through two rounds, the two-time European bronze medallist has a chance of fighting his way to a bronze medal at the World Championships as well.

In the up-to-66kg category, with all due respect to the talents of Ruslan Pashayev and Turan Bayramov, their chances are limited by the fierce competition in this weight class, particularly with two-time Olympic champion Hifumi Abe, his compatriot Takeshi Takeoka, and the Russian judoka in the field, who are unlikely to pass up an opportunity to make the podium.

In the up-to-73kg category, we have our own king — Hidayat Heydarov. Unfortunately, however, he is not currently in his best shape, particularly given that making weight has become an increasingly difficult and painful ordeal for him, one that gets harder to deal with year after year. All we can do is hope that our Olympic champion can draw on his mental strength and fighting spirit — qualities he unquestionably possesses. So let us put it this way: if Hidayat avoids defeat in his second bout, he will reach at least the final.

As for our second representative in this weight category, Rashid Mammadaliyev, he is in excellent form and is quite capable of making an impact at the World Championships and attempting to fight for at least a bronze medal. After winning the most recent Grand Slam in Budapest before this tournament, he certainly has what it takes.

In the up-to-81kg category, seeded Zelim Tckaev is one of the championship favourites, and we have little doubt that he will win a medal. However, gold remains an elusive dream for him at this stage, just as it is for our two other judoka competing in this weight category — Omar Rajabli and Vusal Galandarzade. The fact is that success at Grand Slams and Grand Prix events is nothing compared with performing well at the European and World Championships, where the level of competition is entirely different. Therefore, both Omar and Vusal must first and foremost approach each bout with the right mindset and free themselves from the pressure of competing on home soil, which in this case can only hinder them.

In the up-to-90kg category, we have two judoka of roughly equal standing — Elmar Hajiyev and Murad Fatiyev. The former, however, spent almost a year out of major competition due to injury, while the latter has so far shown his full potential mainly at Grand Slam events. The third judoka in this weight category, European U23 champion Suleyman Shukurov, will most likely be limited to the aforementioned approach to this tournament — taking part being more important than winning.

Therefore, we are likely to see a medal here only if a miracle happens, or if the favourites — Luka Maisuradze, Lasha Bekauri and Sanshiro Murao — suffer early defeats.

We would not be wrong to say that our greatest hopes for gold are pinned on the up-to-100kg category, where Azerbaijan is represented by just one judoka — but what a judoka he is! European, World and Olympic champion Zelym Kotsoiev, unlike Hidayat Heydarov, has continued to perform successfully since the Paris Olympics, regularly finishing on the podium at the biggest tournaments. The only thing that could stand in his way of winning gold is his “fondness” for prohibited techniques, for which he has been disqualified on more than one occasion.

In the over-100kg category, we still have Ushangi Kokauri, the 2018 World Championships silver medallist in Baku. We would very much like Kokauri, whose run to the final at those championships was a genuine sensation, to “pull off” something similar once again, especially since he has not won a medal at either the European or World Championships since that tournament. Moreover, our other representative in this weight category, Jamal Gamzatkhanov, has frankly struggled on the international stage, and expecting him to win a medal would be the height of optimism. Kanan Nasibov, however, could reach the final if he is mentally well prepared and things fall his way.

Thus, our men’s team could secure four or five medals of various colours, one or two of them gold. After all, a World Championships campaign on home soil without gold would be considered an unsatisfactory outcome, especially given that the women’s team, which has been unable to win even a single medal at Grand Slam events for almost a year, is unlikely to claim even one bronze among its six competitors at the World Championships.

To be frank, neither Shafag Hamidova nor Konul Aliyeva (both in the 48kg category), Gultaj Mammadaliyeva (52kg), Khadija Gadashova (57kg), Sudaba Aghayeva (70kg) or Madina Kaisinova (over 70kg) are currently capable of competing with the world’s best female judoka. Therefore, women’s national team head coach Amina Abdullatif will either have to get them to “punch above their weight” or come up with some special psychological measures to ensure that they contribute at least something to the overall medal tally.

By Vugar Vugarli, specially for Caliber.Az