Yashar Najafov claims the fame in Baku

Yashar Najafov surprised with a thrilling gold medal today at home at the Grand Slam of Baku. The Azeri did not tremble against a determined Vieru in the semi final and offered himself a place in the final, although at the start of the competition, he was not one of the favourites. In IJF's golden score he was still impressed by his own final. He had no plan for the day and was susprised about his performance. His hero is Elchin Ismayilov who is now the coach who supported his career along the way to gold. His next goal is the European Championships in Montpellier in November.

It was therefore Takeshi Takeoka, who we found in the final against Yashar Najafov. This contest was so short after Najafov launched Takeshi Takeoka in the air and the Japanese landed flat on his back for ippon. It was an outstanding uchi-mata a few seconds after the initial hajime. The gold medal was for Yashar Najafov and for Azerbaijan and he followed up Orkhan Safarov who won this weight class in 2021. The first one to win gold U66kg was Nijat Shikhalizada in 2015. It was the 28^th gold medal in a Grand Slam ever for Azerbaijan, all by men. Najafov, carried the hope of the whole crowd on his shoulders and succeeded.

Frenchman Walide Khyar, bronze medallist in Doha during the 2023 World Championships, came to Baku to compete, find new solutions and of course perform. The Japanese judoka, Takeshi Takeoka, silver medallist of the 2019 junior world championships and without any senior world ranking, foiled all the plans of Khyar who was not only penalised three times but who also suffered facing a waza-ari along the way from a beautiful ko-uchi-gari. You should always be wary of Japanese athletes.

Author of a very good tournament, David Garcia Torne (ESP) qualified for the first bronze medal contest against Nurali Emomali (TJK). During some contests the athletes can spend several minutes on the tatami and sweat litres. Sometimes it is the opposite, that they come off the tatami like nothing had happened. Today, the first bronze medal was of the second category as David Garcia Torne launched, after a few seconds, a brilliant kata-guruma that gave no chance to Emomali. It was ippon for Garcia Torne and a welcome bronze medal.

Mukhriddin Tilovov (UZB) and Denis Vieru (MDA) faced each other in the second fight for a bronze medal, a contest that went deep into golden score. It was actually an interesting and sometimes  strange match. Vieru seemed a little out of sorts, two shido down, behind Tilovov who was hyper active. Vieru seemed very calm though, hardly breathing when the pace was very high, while Tilovov had to breathe with his mouth wide open. At one point Vieru decided that this was continuing too long and started to speed up to eventually push his opponent to be penalised a third time. It was an enjoyable battle and a bronze medal for Vieru.