SILVER EQUAL TO GOLD

The renewed Azerbaijan Judo Federation (AJF) closely follows the development of junior and young athletes in the national teams. A few years ago the judo team complained that there was no serious competition in the younger age groups. Today the picture is completely different. Both the youth and junior judo teams demonstrate quite a satisfactory performance.

Irony of life

At the recent World Cup in Bosnia and Herzegovina the junior team of Azerbaijan finished the prestigious competition with three medals. Aydan Veliyeva (48kg) defeated Hungarian Luka Vig and won a bronze medal. Despite her diligence and perseverance, Aydan became the third due to just one mistake, although she could expect a medal of higher value thanks to her preparation and performance.

The same is true for Nizami Imranov (60kg). He was expected to win a gold medal before the competition but suffered a bitter defeat in the semi-finals due to his own mistake. As a result, he became the bronze medallist of the championship defeating the French athlete Dayan Boulemtefez in the consolation bout.

Shahin Orujzade (55kg) reached the final stage of the tournament without defeat. Despite his performance at semi-finals, Shahin unfortunately failed to win the stage, hence becoming a silver medallist.

According to the results of the team competition announced on the last day of the championship in Sarajevo, the Azerbaijani team won a gold and silver medals. It reached the final stage beating Bosnia (4-1) in the first leg, then Canada (4-2) in the quarter-finals and Ukraine (4-3) in the semi-finals.

In the finals, the Azerbaijani team faced a strong French team. As Fidan Alizade was unable to take to the tatami due to an injury she sustained in the semi-finals against the Ukrainian athlete, the team started the meeting with a score of 0-1. Despite this head start, the Azerbaijani team could raise the score to 3:3. According to the rules, this requires holding a decisive bout. The weight category in this case is determined by a draw. Unfortunately for the Azerbaijani team, the draw determined the decisive bout at 63kg. But as Fidan Alizade could not join the bout due to her injury, the victory was automatically awarded to the French team.

More medals were possible

Rustam Alimli, head coach of Azerbaijan's youth national team, expressed his satisfaction with his team’s performance in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  He is confident that the judokas could have won more awards: "We would have had more medals if not for the controversial decisions of the referees. We were expecting gold medals from Nizami Imranov and Aydan Veliyeva. Nizami made a mistake in the semi-finals and finished with a bronze medal. This was the last race for several athletes of the team as they are joining the youth team. It is good to have such a replacement for the youth and main teams."

Bronze medallist Aydan Veliyeva, who received a medal at the world championship after a nine-year pause, said: "The date of the competition matched my birthday and I really wanted to make myself a present at the championship. Considering it was my last junior championship, I was even more disappointed. I thought a Japanese judoka would be my main rival. I believed that if I went head-to-head with her I would win the match. I knew the Italian athlete I lost to also. I lost because of my own mistakes.

“I will try to show a stable performance in the youth team as well. Probably, my weight category will change, as for a category of 48 kg I have to lose a lot, i.e. 5-6 kg. In the youth combined team, I believe I’ll feel more comfortable in the 52kg category. But I will leave the final decision to my coaches".

For Olympic medals

AJF vice president Rovshan Rustamov said these medals were not the result of one day: "There was a long and extensive training period. Our short-term goal is to win the world championship, and the long-term goal is to win medals at the Paris Summer Olympic Games. We have high expectations for the world championship in Tashkent. We have been preparing for it for several months. The national team has been to a training camp in Goygol (Azerbaijan) and in Georgia. Both our head coach Richard Trautmann and executive director Mark van der Ham are working hard to make it a success.”

According to Rovshan Rustamov, AJF does everything to ensure that athletes are prepared not only technically and tactically, but also have the discipline in the team improved: "We see judo not only as a sport. Judo is also an object of serious analytical analysis for us. We have recently started to use new software. All performances at various competitions are rigorously analysed through video replays and then our head coaches are given recommendations as to where the athletes could go wrong. At the same time, we expect to conduct licensing of clubs in the near future. There are more than 100 judo clubs in Azerbaijan that need to be re-licensed. Parents want to know which mentor they entrust their children to. We are in the process of re-certifying both coaches and referees and hope to complete this process by the end of the year.”

Rustamov added that a number of events will be held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Azerbaijani judo: "We are developing a plan to hold a series of events. In November, Grand Slam tournament will be held in Baku. We will also hold events as part of this competition."

Overall, the Azerbaijani youth team's performance in Sarajevo can be assessed positively. The coaching staff intends to follow the preparation of Nizami Imranov and Aydan Veliyeva regularly; they will be invited to various youth competitions. After all, we expect Olympic medals from these judokas.