The International Judo Federation (IJF) prepared an article about the results of the first day of the "Grand Slam" held in Tokyo.
Idman.biz reports that a special place was given to Azerbaijani judoka Hidayat Heydarov, who won a gold medal.
It was reported that Tokyo, the heart of the judo world, witnessed great performances at the Grand Slam. Heydarov was in the spotlight because he was number 1 in the world ranking and a three-time European Champion.
"Recently, Hidayat Heydarov, who won the European Championship for the third time, showed great courage and maturity in defeating strong opponents. He faced one of the toughest opponents in the first round. Makhmadbek Makhmadbekov (AIN), a four-time winner of the "Grand Slam", was in the lead with a "vasa-ari" advantage, but Heydarov first equalized the score, and then won a clean victory. One of the most important moments for the Azerbaijani judoka was the meeting with the Italian Manuel Lombardo in the 1/4 finals. Before that, Heydarov lost to Lombardo in all three matches. He obviously wanted to improve his stats, so Manuel confidently ippon his opponent before he could counterattack. The final with Hashimoto was another challenge, as it was an opponent Hidayat had tried seven times but failed to beat before," IJF said in an article about Hidayat's matches.
The international organization wrote about the final in more detail: "Heydarov was the closest to victory in regulation time, repeatedly attacking and using a cross from behind. However, none of the opponents could open the account. Although the Azerbaijani took the same place in the "Golden Score", he changed direction and won Hashimoto a "vaza-ari" point with the "hikikomi-gaeshi" trick.
Hidayat was delighted to win his sixth Grand Slam gold medal and his first victory over Hashimoto. He may be in the best form of his career and hopes to maintain it until Paris 2024."
It should be noted that Heydarov became the first Azerbaijani judoka to win the first place in the competition held in Japan, defeating the Japanese Soichi Hashimoto.
Idman.biz
