Sharafuddin Lutfillaev eager to win the gold medal at highest level

Sharafuddin Lutfillaev took silver at the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo where he had a great day, but in fact forgot to win the gold medal. The spectacular judoka from Uzbekistan is for years one of the sensations in the lightweight division U60kg. Together with Diyorbek Urozboev, who won the bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games, Lutfillaev confirms the strong presence of former Soviet countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Russia.

Since the 2009 World Championships in Rotterdam, these countries claimed 25 medals at World Championships and Olympic Games U60kg including Olympic Champions Arsen Galstyan and Beslan Mudranov. Also world titles for Georgii Zantaraia, Rishod Sobirov and Yeldos Smetov. Most of them are also masters of escape.

In Tokyo three out of four athletes on the podium are born in a former Soviet country: Chkhvimiani, Smetov and Lutfillaev.

Lutfillaev didn’t yet win a Grand Slam, he took silver medals in Paris twice and took bronze in Baku, Paris and Abu Dhabi (twice). He won Grand Prix events in Tashkent, Tbilisi, Samsun, Marrakech and Zagreb and claimed three bronze medals at the IJF Masters since 2015.

This category is spectacular to watch and if you are impressed by the uchimata of Ono or perhaps Maruyama, but one of the best uchimata men in the competition circuit is Lutfillaev.