"We are participating in this competition for the second time."
Elkhan Mammadov, the head coach of the Azerbaijan national youth judo team, told Idman.biz.
He evaluated the team's performance at the European Cup held in Graz, Austria. According to an experienced specialist, the competition was intense: "Europe's leading athletes competed in this competition. Especially Japan participates in the tournament with the main team. Of course, our athletes performed very well in this tough fight and our team beat the Asians. Although Japan and we won 3 gold and 1 bronze medals in the cup, we surpassed them because we were 5th and 7th in the team. This is the toughest competition among young people. We are happy that our young people are the first in such a struggle. The number of medals could have been higher."
He also revealed the names of those who did not live up to expectations in the tournament: "Nizami Imranov (60 kg), who played in our team, suffered a rib injury and could not participate with full strength. Muhammad Musayev (66 kg) fell ill. For these reasons, they were left without a medal. The performance of Suleyman Aliyev (73 kg) and Aydin Rzayev (73 kg) did not live up to expectations. It is not possible to show high performance in every competition. Our main goal is future competitions. After that, our next plan is the next European Cup in Berlin in August. There will be no competition for two months and we will prepare for the next tournaments with a full team."
Banuchichek Huseynli
Idman.biz
