The “World Masters” tournament, the final
qualification event in Rio 2016 was ended in Guadalajara, Mexico. 235 athletes
(117 men, 118 women) from 51 countries competed in the tournament and the national
team was represented by 7 judokas.The national team won 2 gold and 2 bronze medals and
took the 2ndplace among 51 countries. In the general ranking the
team fell behind only Japan (5 gold, 2 bronze) and was became the 1stin the men’s tournament.Fortunately, all achieved medals for our country were
won by the judokas of “Neftchi Sports Club”. The judoka Orkhan Safarov (60 kg)
joined the competition from the quarter-final. He won the Turkish Bekir Ozlu
and the French Walide Khyar and qualified for the final. In the decisive match
Safarov faced with the French – Vincent Limare, won his opponent and took the
gold medal. The judoka Elmar Gasimov achieved the same success. He won the
Brazilian Luciano Correa, the Algerian Lyes Buyakub, the Swedish judoka Martin
Pacek and qualified for the final. In the final the judoka won the French
athlete Cyrille Maret and took the 1st place.Nijat
Shikhalizada (66 kg) won the Italian Fabio Basile in the first match,
but he lost to the Mongolian athlete Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj in the quarter-final
and joined the consolatory matches. The representative won the Japanese
Tomofumi Takajo in the first match of this stage. And in the fight for bronze
medal, he won the Portguese Sergiu Oleinic and became the 3rd. Rustam Orujov
also won a bronze medal. Orujov won the judoka of The United Arab Emirates
Victor Scvortov and the Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt. In the semi-final our judoka
lost to the Japanese Soichi Hashimoto and he had to meet with the
representative of Korea Changrim An in the fight for bronze medal. But his
opponent didn’t come on the tatami and Orujov won the bronze medal.