How Heydarov became Azerbaijan’s best ever judoka

For Hidayat Heydarov, Olympic glory was a long time coming. For the longest time, he played second fiddle to his compatriot Rustam Orujov, who was always one step ahead of him in the IJF World Circuit. At one point, Heydarov even briefly moved up to -81kg as Orujov had secured the -73kg spot.

Heydarov was finally able to blossom after Orujov had retired. At the Abu Dhabi World Championships in May, Heydarov became World Champion. And he did it with style, using a very unique side-takedown technique that caught all of his opponents by surprise. No doubt, many of them would have studied videos of his matches, and would come fully prepared to block off that technique.

He had a tough time in his first match, against Tohar Butbul of Israel, and had to rely on penalties to win in Golden Score. His second match, against Australia’s Arthur Margelidon, was even more gruelling. Their match went deep into Golden Score and with two shidos each, it looked like it would be decided by penalties. In the end however, Heydarov settled it with his favorite side takedown.

His semifinal match against Kosovo’s Akil Gjakova was just as tough as his preliminary round matches. Both had opted to play a tactical match. Neither wanted to take the risk of going for a big throw and their match ended up in Golden Score. A minute-and-a-half into it, with two shidos apiece, Heydarov suddenly disappeared underneath Gjakova and rotated him with a slick drop seoi-nage to win the match.

The Heydarov-Gaba final proved to be yet another tactical match, and it dragged very deep into Golden Score. After five minutes had elapsed, and with each player having accrued two shidos each, Heydarov went for broke and launched into a fully committed ouchi-gari/kosoto-gake. That took Gaba down, flat on his back. Heydarov had become Olympic Champion and matched with his idol and personal advisor Elnur Mammadli.