A LONG-AWAITED SUCCESS

Azerbaijan's judoists' run of bad luck is over. After complaining a few months ago about the lack of the right conditions, they are now without equal in top competitions. One of the recent competitions which brought them success was the Grand Prix tournament held in Qingdao, China.

The Azerbaijani team, led by Peter Seisenbacher, which set off for China brought joy to the team's coaches by winning six medals.

After a run of victories Orxan Safarov had to give way to his team-mate Ilqar Muskiyev in the quarter-final of the 60kg category. The latter defeated the Kazakh, Aybek Imashev, in the semi-final and the Dutchman, Jeroen Mooren, in the final to take the gold medal.

Nicat Sixalizada (66kg category) joined the battle at the second stage. After three victories in a row, in the final he came up against the Mongolian, Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj, giving him no chance and winning the bout in the 45th second with an ippon.

Rustam Orucev, who is top of the world ratings in the 73kg category, had to be satisfied with a silver. On the way to the final he beat judoists from Spain, China, Kazakhstan and Belgium. But in the final, up against the Japanese Soichi Hashimoto, Rustam made an error which cost him a gold medal.

Joining the battle in the 90kg category at the second stage, Ramin Qurbanov beat the host judoist, Xunzhao Cheng, in his first bout. Then he was defeated by the Mongolian judoist. But in the quarter final, unfortunately, Qurbanov lost to the Cuban, Asley Gonzalez. In the repechage he beat the Russian, Kirill Voprosov by ippon and took the bronze.

Elmar Qasimov, who represented Azerbaijan in the 100kg category, began the tournament with victories over the Japanese, Rutar Goto, and the Georgian, Guram Tushishvili. In the quarter-final he was up against his team-mate Elxan Mammadov, who had beaten the Argentinian, Hector Campos, and the Korean Huang Min-Hoi. The duel between the two Azerbaijani judoists ended in victory for Mammadov. But in the next bout Elxan lost to the Kazakh, Maksim Rakov. But victory over the Ukrainian, Artem Bloshchenko, brought Mammadov a bronze. A similar medal was won by Elmar Qasimov, who beat the Croatian Zlatko Kumric and the German Karl-Richard Frei in repechages.

Azerbaijan won a total of six medals at the Grand Prix tournament. Ilqar Muskiyev (60kg) and Nicat Sixalizada (66kg) won gold medals, Rustam Orucev (73 kg) won a silver and Ramin Qurbanov (90kg), Elmar Qasimov (100kg) and Elxan Mammadov (100kg) were awarded bronze medals. So, the Azerbaijani men's team won the most medals at the tournament.

Following changes in the management of the federation and the appointment of Peter Seisenbach as chief coach, there was a clear improvement in the team's physical preparation. Work on creating rivalry in the team is now being carried out. The judoists are also taking part in all Grand Prix tournaments and qualifying competitions on the international schedule. The Grand Prix medallists in China have added to their total of points that will help them get more qualifications for the 2016 Olympics.

In an interview for R+ Azerbaijan's chief judo coach, Peter Seisenbach, expressed his satisfaction with the performance of his team, but he also pointed out that even tougher tests lie ahead: "Time is getting short before the biggest competition in the world. The federation has set the task to get as many qualifications for the Olympics as possible. At this moment in time, two or three of our judoists hold good positions in the ratings. So the rest have to get good results. We plan to send a full squad to Rio de Janeiro, but to do so it is extremely important to succeed in all the remaining qualifying competitions. We shall start our preparations for the Olympics next March. Our main task now is to earn qualifying points."

Grand Prix winner in China, Ilqar Muskiyev, pointed out the keen competition at the tournament: "Our preparations for the competition in China were conducted at a high level. Thanks to the concern shown by the new management of the federation, we are already fighting for the top places. Our current success shows that we are on the right path. In the run-up to the Olympics all competitions are tense, and this one was no exception. Time has shown that we are worthy of good results, as we proved in China. Judo has now reached such a level of development that it would be wrong to single out one particular athlete. For me, I fought each bout as if it were my last. Generally speaking, judo in Kazakhstan has developed quite strongly recently and I now have four strong rivals in the 60kg category." 

66kg winner Nicat Sixalizada stressed that he had focused all his attention on qualifying for Rio: "Our aim was to win and so increase the number of qualifying points for the Olympics. I did what I had to do. By adding 300 points to my rating, I have strengthened my position in the table. As regards my rivals, I can say that the first bout and the semi-final were relatively tough for me. But I held on and won. I came to the final confident, with one desire - to win - but I didn't think I would win in the very first minute by ippon. After all, my opponent was a very strong judoist."

Grand Prix tournaments in Korea and Japan now lay in store for Azerbaijan's judoists.