Azerbaijan opened its campaign at the Judo Grand Prix in Qingdao, China, with a bronze medal on the first day of competition.
As reported by İdman.Biz, Ahmed Yusifov claimed bronze in the men's 60 kg category after an impressive run through the repechage. He defeated Dilshot Khalmatov of Ukraine and China's Yulin Ma before losing to Japan's Hayato Kondo in the quarterfinals. Yusifov bounced back by beating Slovakia's David Starkel in the repechage and France's Enzo Jean in the bronze-medal contest.
Two more Azerbaijani judokas came within one victory of the podium. In the men's 66 kg division, Ruslan Pashayev defeated China's Ziyan Xue, France's Alexis Renard and Russia's Abdullakh Partsiyev before falling to France's Kelvin Ray in the bronze-medal bout.
In the women's 52 kg event, Gultaj Mammadaliyeva enjoyed a strong run with victories over Poland's Kinga Klimczak, Israel's Gefen Primo and Spain's Ayumi Leiva Sanchez. After losing to Germany's Mascha Ballhaus in the semifinals, she was beaten by Brazil's Larissa Pimenta in the fight for bronze.
Elsewhere, Balabay Aghayev reached the round of 16 in the 60 kg category before losing to Kazakhstan's Yeldos Smetov. Tofiq Mammadov (66 kg), Kenul Aliyeva (48 kg) and Leyla Aliyeva (52 kg) were eliminated in their opening contests, while Shafag Hamidova (48 kg) won her first bout before exiting in the next round.
The Qingdao Grand Prix runs until June 28 and features around 500 judokas from 57 countries. Winners receive 700 world ranking points, while silver and bronze medalists earn 490 and 350 points respectively.
