GREAT PERFORMANCE

European Junior Judo Championship in Odivelas, Portugal saw the successful performance of the Azerbaijani national team. Our junior athletes demonstrated high results in both team and individual competitions.

Following the results of four days of the tournament, the national team of Azerbaijan finished the championship with 9 medals and ranked the first in the team standings by the number of awards.

Vusala Hajiyeva (48kg), Muhammed Mamishov (50kg), Mirkhalig Iskanderov (55kg), Muhammed Musayev (60kg), Abil Yusubov (66kg) and Ramazan Ahmadov (+90kg) became European champions, while Khadija Gadashova (52kg), Ahmad Rustamov (55kg) and Mehdi Jafarov (66kg) won bronze medals.

In individual competitions, we can specifically mention Vusala Hajiyeva and Ramazan Ahmedov. The guys climbed to the top of the podium, defeating all their rivals with a clear advantage. High technique, ability to make instant decisions and other components showed that they are almost ready to take part in the upcoming world cup.

Azerbaijan received another gold medal in the mixed team competition. The national team defeated the Netherlands (4:1) and the qualifying teams of Germany and Italy with the same score of 4:2. Our opponent in the competition for the gold medal was the national team of France. Although Azerbaijani judoists lost to the French (1:3) at the initial stage of the tournament, they showed persistence and could level the score (3:3). In this case, the winner had to be determined by a golden point. But since Adrian Mivovan of France did not join the bout against Muhammed Musayev (60kg) of Azerbaijan, the latter was declared the winner. Thus, the Azerbaijani national team won the gold medals of the European Championship with the score 4:3.

Record result

Junior Ramazan Ahmedov (gold) shared his feelings following his success: "I am very happy to win another gold medal for the team. Before the final match I discussed tactical moves with my coaches. I'm happy that it worked out. It was nice to see my teammates singing our anthem. It is a great honour for me to win a medal for my country".

Advisor to the President of the Azerbaijan Judo Federation, Natig Baghirov, said that the results of the continental championship are record-breaking: "The national team has set a record at the Junior European Championship, first in the history of Azerbaijani judo. Ahead is the world cup. We will prepare for the competition very responsibly. It is not always possible to win in sport. But we will train hard to justify the achieved result. A special programme will be developed to attract judokas who have won medals at the continental championship to youth and adult teams in the future".

Undoubtedly, the achievement at the world cup was very high. At the same time, the coaching staff should pay special attention to the gold medallists of the national team in team competitions. After the world championship, some juniors can be involved, for example, in joint training with the youth team. At the same time, unfortunately, there are still problems in most cases associated with the transition of young judokas to older age groups. For certain reasons promising athletes cannot continue their successful performance and have to end their careers at this stage. Therefore, the transition of young judokas to youth teams should be carried out under special programmes. They should get used to the team gradually in order to continue their career.

New head coach

Incidentally, the Azerbaijani adult judo team has a new coach. Azerbaijan Judo Federation invited a well-known German specialist Slavko Tekic to the post of senior coach of the men's national team. He will assume the post on August 1, 2023.

Slavko Tekic (53) started his coaching career in 1992. Since 1996, he has been working in Germany. In 1999, he was appointed state coach of the federal state of Hamburg, and a head coach in 2009. He worked in this position until he was invited to the national team of Azerbaijan. In 2017, Tekic was honoured with the Judo Coach of the Year award by the German Judo Federation. He has extensive experience in developing and applying training programmes focused on achieving high results at international tournaments.

Richard Trautmann will continue to work as head coach of the men's national team of Azerbaijan.