The “Grand
Slam Tournament” has been finished Abu Dhabi, the
UAE. 157 athletes from 34 countries (96 male, 61 female) have competed in the
tournament and the national team has took part with 12 judokas.The
members of the national team have performed successfully and won 3 medals (1
gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze).It should
be noted with great pride, each of the three medalists are the sportsmen of
“Neftchi Sports Club”. Elkhan Mammadov (100 kg) has joined the competition from
the 1/4 final. He has won the Kazakh athlete Aybek Serikbayev and Croatian
Zlatko Kumric and qualified for the final. At the decisive match he has
defeated Brazilian Lusiano Correa and has been awarded the gold medal of the
tournament.The
medalist of the Rio Olympic Games Rustam Orujov (73 kg) has begun the match from
the 1/4 match. In this match his opponent has been his teammate Fagan Guluzada.
Orujov has won his opponent and has qualified for the semi-final. In the
semi-final he has also defeated the native-born athlete Victor Skvortov and
reached to the final. But in this match he has lost to the Swedish participant
Tommy Makias and claimed a silver medal.Tural
Safguliyev (90 kg) won his opponent of the Seychelles Nanteniana Finessi in the
first match, but he has lost the next opponent Serbian Alexander Kukolj and
joined the repechage match. And the judoka won the Brazilian athlete Eduardo
Bettoni. In the fight for the third place he has also won German Hannes Konnard
and owned a bronze medal of the “Grand Slam” tournament.