"There is a lot of hard work behind these gold medals, we achieved them by working purposefully."
This was said by the Executive Vice President of the Azerbaijan Judo Federation Rashad Rasullu in his statement to Idman.biz.
The official of the organization evaluated the performance of the Azerbaijani national team at the World Championship held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE: "Two years ago, when Hidayat Heydarov (73 kg) and Zelym Kotsoiev (100 kg) won bronze at the World Championship in Tashkent, they were ready for the championship. Last year, Kotsoiev won bronze again. In the semi-finals, his opponent Lukas Krpalek was not given a third warning. Hidayat was injured in the first match. But we did not get discouraged and continued our work. Behind these results is the great work of the team. I want to thank everyone for their hard work. But after that, it is necessary to continue the approach as a system."
Rasullu also touched on the level of the competition: "The championship went well. Heydarov and Kotsoyev have already defeated their opponents who did not come to Abu Dhabi. In my personal opinion, Tatsuki Ishihara surpasses the more experienced Japanese Soichi Hashimoto.
He emphasized that the women's team performed according to its current form: "Leyla Aliyeva (48 kg) won a license. We will choose the athlete who will go to the Olympics in the 52 kg category between Gultaj Mammadaliyeva and Aydan Valiyeva."
Rasullu said that our team fulfilled the license plan: "We thought in advance that we will be represented in Paris in all 7 weight categories of men and 2 categories of women. Now the main thing is to show a good result in the Olympics."
Zaki Feyzullayev
Idman.biz
