Vugar Shirinli secures second judo gold for Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan secured a second gold of the afternoon courtesy of Vugar Shirinli. Azerbaijan captured seven Paralympic gold medals since the first in 2004 by Ilham Zakiyev. Shirinli and his opponent Anuar Sariyev of Kazakhstan both held their breath for ippon at various points throughout their match. But it was Shirinli who in the end was rewarded for his efforts with the gold.

“I’m very proud of being here. I did everything I could do. My opponents were also not weak, they were very strong, but thank god I became the champion because I put my all into that.

“This was one of my biggest dreams and I’m very happy to be here because this is a really good motivation for me to plan to participate in the next Paralympics. I have a big desire to be there and to be a champion there as well.”

Turkey’s Recep Citfci claimed the other bronze after beating Venezuela’s Marcos Dennis Blanco.

Blanco had earlier knocked-out Uzbekistan’s Paralympic champion Sherzod Namozov, who then fought his way back to a shot at the podium as a consolation.

It was not to be however as Romania’s Alex Bologa was stood firmly in his way in a bronze-medal match that lasted nearly six minutes, forcing Namozov to become frustrated after an already stressful day.

World No.1 Bologa was himself determined to make-up for missing out on a chance on gold and managed to repeat his bronze-tinged performance from Rio 2016 by holding his nerve. He won by ippon after Namozov was disqualified.

“It was a very tough competition and a very tough period we had beforehand,” Bologa said. “I wanted to succeed to the final and win the category, but I’m very happy with this bronze medal.

“It was very hard to get up after losing the semi-final (against Shirinli) in a golden score in a very hard fight. I was motivated by my coach and by myself to win another medal and to put the crown on this particular five years since Rio.”