Russians lose Putin judo Cup against foreigners

The Russian presidential judo cup contest has taken place for the fifth time. Three times out of the five, the main prize went to guests. While Japanese won it last year, this year the St. Petersburg-based Yawara Neva sports club, where President Vladimir Putin used to train and which he never fails to visit when in the northern capital, lost the cup in the international final to the European team comprising the best judoists from Romania, Slovenia, Italy, Holland, Greece, Estonia and Great Britain.

This time, the competition held in the town of Podolsk near Moscow have been governed by a new set of rules. Actually, there have been two prizes contested. The teams of the Russian federal districts competed for one, with the Urals team coming on top, while the European team took on the Yawara Neva team from St. Petersburg. There were many distinguished judo fighters on both teams. Thus, the 2004 Olympic champion, Greek Ilias Iliadis; 2000 Olympic champion, Dutchman Mark Huizinga; Olympic prize winner, Estonian Indrek Pertelson; world cup winners, Englishman Craig Fallon and Italian Michele Monti and European prize winners, Slovenian Josef Krnac and Romanian Claudiu Bastea were on the continent's team.

The St. Petersburg team featured Olympic silver medal winner Tamerlan Tmenov, and European prize winners Khasambi Taov and Magomed Djafarov.

St. Pete's natives, who won the European Cup this year, have failed, however, to repeat their success they made during the Presidential Judo Tournaments in 2000 and 2002. The guests have won 3:2 with two draws, though all judoists fought hard, with only Yawara Neva's Tmenov and Djafarov gaining clean victory. Still, the hard-won victories of Iliadis, Huizinga and Monti brought the overall success to the guests.

Anatoly Laryukov, the Olympics 2004 bronze medal winner who is soon to assist the Russian president's coach Anatoly Rakhlin in training Russia' female judoist national team, failed to overcome Romanian Claudiu Bastea. According to the Russia, his opponent proved to be a very difficult one, though "I should have won. By the way, I had learnt that I would have to come to grips with the Romanian, rather than the Frenchman as was planned, just a few days before the competition".

The Russian national team's coach, Avel Kazachenkov, attributed the Russians' loss to them not taking preparations for the final match seriously enough. According to Kazachenkov, the tired Olympic team members should not have been let on the tatami, given Yawara Neva's numerous reserves.

"The Russian Presidential Tournament is a very important vent. The president has been promoting sports real hard, therefore, we just ought to win," the coach of the Russian national team said.

Alexei Gordeyev, the president of the Russian Judo Federation and National Judo Union and minister of agriculture, looked somewhat annoyed too.

"The new set of rules for the tournament allows us to gage the level of judo excellence in the provinces that are rich in talent, as well as popularize judo throughout the country," Mr. Gordeyev underlined. "We count heavily on the tournament, in which renowned sportsmen participate, to feature a high public profile, which is to serve the groundwork of further progress of judo in this country."

The next presidential judo cup is slated for contest in a year, and a decision on which Russian city is going to host the event is pending.