OLYMPIC SEVEN

The Azerbaijani national team has established a new record for medals won at the Games. This number is now seven, which is quite symbolic. The team won one gold, two silver and four bronze medals. The main hero of Beijing was judoka Elnur Mammadli (73 kg), who won his gold in excellent fashion.

Failures left behind

This is one of those cases when a sportsman goes to the Games in top form, withstands the psychological pressure and makes maximum use of his potential. Mammadli's victory will probably go down in the history of the Olympic Games, in view of the way he overcame his opponents. We could say that Mammadli picked up the baton from another Olympic champion Nazim Huseynov, who took first place in Barcelona in 1992. Thus, our judokas broke their unlucky streak and more than matched expectations.

The bronze success of another judoka, Movlud Miraliyev (100 kg), provided a further unexpected bonus. Few people bet on him before Beijing. Although there was no question about his place in the national team for two Olympic Games, he was not the leader of the team in the full meaning of this word. We mean in terms of results - before the Games in Athens, where he took fifth place, Movlud could only boast of his third place in the open category in the world championship in Osaka. However, the athlete proved that Olympic experience is decisive and, at 34, Movlud probably reached the peak of his career. Moreover, our judo team was the best in Europe according to the results of the unofficial Olympic event, taking third place in the final men's table and fourth place in the team event, behind only Japan, China and Korea. This success is actually an historic one, because we managed to beat the traditionally strong Georgian and Russian teams, not to mention Holland, Brazil, France and many other of the world's leading countries. 

It is significant that in three weight divisions, our judokas encountered athletes who went on to become Olympic champions. For example, in the 81 kg division, Mehman Azizov lost to Germany's Ole Bischoff in the first match, Elxan Mammadov (90 kg) lost to Georgia's Irakli Tsirekidze in the quarter finals, while Movlud Miraliyev (100 kg) lost to Tuvshinbayar Naidan of Mongolia.

At the same time, Asia again proved its leading position in the world arena -Asians celebrated victory in nine of the 14 divisions. Four of them came from the Land of the Rising Sun. But still, Europeans fought Asians quite successfully in the individual weight categories - take Mammadli's final victory over Korea's Wang Ki-chun.

The success of our team was especially welcome because it was not at its full complement - in the women's tournament, only Kifayat Qasimova (57 kg) managed to make it to the Games, while our men were not represented at light and super-heavy weight at all. So the Olympics turned out to be quite successful for our national team, which left many strong teams in its wake, including the Russians. It is notable that, ahead of the Olympics, the Russian national team announced that its aim was to win five medals in the judo programme. In the end they did not win a single medal.

"Our national team did a great job and finally broke the unlucky run of failures in the Games. Miraliyev paid his debt for the Olympics in Athens where he lost the bronze medal. He failed to take the medal then, but got it at the second attempt. Elnur and Movlud's medals were very important for us because in recent Olympics our team has beaten about the bush. We were one step short. In Sydney, Rasul Salimov (90 kg) took fifth place, while Miraliyev and Azizov failed to take bronze in Athens, so I can say that we were not lucky. But now the unlucky streak has been broken," said national team coach Agayar Axundzada in conclusion.

Experienced fighters fail

While our expectations were justified in judo, the situation is not so clear in Greco-Roman wrestling. On the one hand, our team won two silver medals through the efforts of Rovsan Bayramov (55 kg) and Vitaliy Rahimov (60 kg) but on the other, the Olympic champion in Athens, Farid Mansurov (66 kg), was knocked out of the tournament. Had he been on top form, he would probably have been involved in the fight for medals, however, a heavy cold accompanied by a fever knocked our "classic" out of his stride. Instead, Rovsan and Vitaliy displayed themselves in all their glory. While we could expect such a breakthrough from the former, Rahimov's second place was unexpected. So our Greco-Roman wrestling school confirmed its class again at the world's principal tournament.

Our freestyle wrestling team was represented in its full complement for the first time. However, only Khetag Gazyumov (96 kg) won a medal, salvaging the team's reputation. Some wrestlers did not live up to expectations. This applies firstly to Namiq Sevdimov (55 kg). The wrestler who knocked the titled Namiq Abdullayev out of the main team was expected to fly to Beijing on a high. However, his performance was lacking in commitment, while Abdullayev's experience and skills could have achieved far better results than Sevdimov's final fifth place.

Meanwhile, experienced sportsmen did not leave the Olympic Games with credit either. We are talking about Chamsulvara Chamsulvarayev (74 kg) who has been in the public eye in recent years and who has won world and European championships. In China, the "freestyler" failed to demonstrate his best qualities, although the coaches were clearly counting on him. We should also note that in five of the seven weight categories, Azerbaijan was represented by naturalized wrestlers. The practice of recruiting foreigners is becoming more and more common and almost every national team in the CIS has wrestlers from the Caucasus. The main question concerns the quality of their performance. From this point of view, Gazyumov was quite successful in our team and deserved to get into the final, but he lost to Russia's Shirvani Muradov in a tense struggle in the semi-finals.

At the same time, the invitation of wrestler Maria Stadnik (48 kg) lived up to expectations. She won a bronze medal. This sportswoman is very ambitious and, more importantly, promising. Stadnik is only 19 years old, which means that she can expect to participate in two more Olympic Games. This is one case when investment in a foreigner was justified.

Sahin Imranov (57 kg) also failed to get into the final of the tournament. His performance in Beijing surprised many. In the previous Olympics our man was confident in going for a medal but he cut his eyebrow and failed to make it into the final to take at least third place. The scenario was repeated four years later. Although after his victory over Cuban Idel Torriente in the quarter finals, our boxer might have relaxed in the fight against Frenchman Djelkhir. In the first round Imranov was in the lead, but he missed five productive punches. Before the second round, the national team coaches threw in the towel: the Frenchman made it into the final, while Shahin took the bronze medal. It turned out that the Azerbaijani boxer could not carry on because his hand had been injured in the fight against the Cuban.

Meanwhile, our national team may improve the quality of their Beijing medals, as it were, retroactively. The point is that bronze winner Movlud Miraliyev (100 kg) may exchange his third place for a silver medal. There are serious grounds to suppose that this will be the case as the winner of this division, Tuvshinbayar Naidan from Mongolia, was caught doping. In any case, samples taken from the sportsman tested positive. The question arises: "Will Movlud get a silver medal if Naidan is deprived of his gold?" It was, in fact, the Mongolian who knocked our man out of the final, gaining victory in a dramatic semi-final in which the result was decided in extra time. Since two bronze medals are given in judo, Movlud can hope for a rise in his status, considering that he was the one who fought Tuvshinbayar. It is necessary now to wait for an official announcement and documentation that will officially confirm that the Mongol athlete turned out to be "illegal".

Minimum task accomplished

Azerbaijan's rhythmic gymnastics team also brought us some joy. Our starlet Aliya Qarayeva took sixth place in all-round events at the Olympics. For her first performance in the Games, our graceful gymnast did quite well, getting ahead of Ukraine's Natalya Gondunko, Israel's Irina Risenson, Spain's Almudena Cid and Bulgaria's Simona Peycheva.

Having made it to the final in all-round events, Aliya Qarayeva had already accomplished her minimum target. It was not easy to battle with Russia's Yergeniya Kanayeva and Olga Kapranova, Ukraine's Anna Bessonova and Belarus' Irina Zhukova for top spot. If medals had been awarded in individual events, Qarayeva would have been a contender for a place in the first three. However, in all-round events it was quite difficult to take the prize, especially as the main confrontation boiled down to the traditional score-settling between the Russian and Ukrainian performers. The Ukrainians had secured victory in previous international tournaments: Bessonova won the World Student Games and was victorious in the qualifying world championship in Patras last year.

But let's return to Qarayeva's performance. Her best result was in the hoop exercise, getting 18.075 points from the referees. After all four types of programme, Aliya had 69.675 points. Her lowest points were for the ribbon, which was assessed at 16.700 points. Thus, in all-round events, our gymnast lost to Kanayeva, Zhukova and Bessonova who took first, second and third places respectively, and to Kapranova and Aliya Yusupova from Kazakhstan.

The podium after this event had an unfamiliar look, as Zhukova managed to beat the outright world champion, Bessonova, as well as Kapranova, in the tournament rankings. Kanayeva's victory was somewhat expected, although she made a name for herself only last year when she won a prize at the European championship in Baku. As for Qarayeva herself, her sixth place is quite a good result and a beacon for the future.

Summarizing the Olympics, we can say that it was a successful one in all respects. Seven medals won in Beijing are worth much and now our national team has a wonderful reference point ahead of the 2012 Games in London.