"While coming home with my friend, we were attacked by children older than us. They took everything from us, we only had underpants left. After this incident, my father said that you should learn to defend yourself."
Our European judo champion, Rustam Orujov said it in an interview with Idman.az, while talking about his arrival in the sport.
The silver medalist of the Olympic Games started practicing judo at the age of 7: "At first I signed up for chess, but after 3-4 months I felt that it was not for me. At that time, my friend was enrolled in judo. My father and I also went to the martial arts club. There were other sports there - karate, freestyle wrestling, but I liked judo. That's how I found my favorite sport."
Saying that he started judo professionally after moving to Azerbaijan, Rustam emphasized that he started achieving success in those years: "When I moved to Azerbaijan, I was studying in the 8th grade. I remember that I took the 3rd place in the national championship and it motivated me - imagine that at the age of 15-16 I got into the Azerbaijan national team. I was already looking at training as a job. Training twice a day, training camps in different places, etc. In short, my professional career had begun...".
Shabnam Rahimova
Idman.biz
