Zelim Tckaev successfully defends Baku gold

The team of Azerbaijan had two strong competitors in the U81kg class in Baku’s Grand Slam. Saeid Mollaei, world champion and Olympic medallist and Zelim Tckaev with no medals at either but four grand slam medals. Even 20 year old Omar Rajabli who is at 115th place on the senior World Ranking List and has a bronze medal from the 2023 European Championships Juniors on his record, competed in the same category and even reached the final, but Tckaev has the best papers today.

Inside the last minute of what had been a real yo-yo of a final, with both Azeri judoka giving everything for the gold medal, it was Tckaev who was finally able to score, entering with an uchi-mata that Rajabli could not escape from.

The first bronze was set to be won by either Gramkow (GER) or Gerbekov (BRN). Both have had a great day but ultimately the throwing ability of Gerbekov was on point today and with an unstoppable ko-soto-gake he ploughed Gramkow into the mat for bronze.

De Wit (NED), beaten by Gerbekov in the quarter-final, faced Shamil Borchashvili (AUT) for the second bronze medal, a nice belated birthday present (28). It was the former who took the win despite great positivity from both fighters. He scored ippon with a huge, full body o-uchi-gari that left  Borchashvili in 5th place.

Gauthier-Drapeau (CAN) was the number one seed in Baku but he lost to unseeded Georgian Dvalashvili in round two, who then in turn lost to Rajabli (AZE) for a place in the quarter-final. Rajabli went on the win that contest too, seeing off Gramkow (GER) with a makikomi at just over a minute into golden score. Rajabli then had Olympic medallist Shamil Borchasvili to contend with in his semi-final and not meaning to give away part of the ending but Rajabli won that too!

In pool C, number 2 seed Mollaei began well against Hebib (BIH) but against Gerbekov (BRN) he couldn’t keep the momentum. Thirty seconds into golden score Askerbii Gerbekov threw Mollaei with a seoi-otoshi for waza-ari, eliminating the host’s Olympic medallist from the group.

Gerbekov continued to have an outstanding day, reaching the semi-final with great determination. There though, he met Tckaev and he had been on explosive form from the first round. As number 3 seed it wasn’t unexpected but it was impressive! Against Gerbekov he employed a sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi first and then took a second waza-ari with a sumi-gaeshi. This set up an all-Azeri final.

After his silver medal in Paris Zelim Tckaev finally triumphed with gold and even at home. It was the 18^th gold medal for the home nation in the tenth edition of this tournament, the same result as last year with both Heydarov and Tckaev winning gold at the second day in Baku.