Rustam Orujov dissapoints Turkish crowd but takes gold in fair play

Hasan VANLIOGLU (TUR) created a big sensation by entering the final of the day in the men’s -73kg category. For that he successively defeated SUN Shuai (CHN) by ippon, Igor WANDTKE (GER) by penalties, Akil GJAKOVA (KOS), Nugzari TATALASHVILI (GEO) by yuko and the top seeded competitor Dex ELMONT (NED) by penalties. In the final he was opposed to Rustam ORUJOV (AZE), winner of the Baku Grand Slam in 2013.

The most awaited fight of the day could begin under the hurrahs of the public, but after three minutes, Hasan VANLIOGLU was in a difficult situation having been penalised three times, while Rustam ORUJOV had only received two shidos. The sound level raised again, when the Azeri fighter also received a third penalty. When the gong echoed in the venue, both athletes had three shido. It was time for the golden score, where everything is possible. 27 seconds were necessary for Rustam ORUJOV to suddenly surprise his opponent with a quick left handed uki-goshi for ippon. In a beautiful sportsmanship gesture, ORUJOV raised VANLIOGLU’s arm to celebrate the local silver medallist. 

Rustam ORUJOV said: “I had a perfect day. Everything went well until the final where I had an extra pressure due to the fact that I was against a Turkish athlete, but that didn’t bother me at all. I did my judo. It’s only the beginning of the season but that a very good result.“

The first bronze medal fight opposed the winner of Ulaanbaatar Grand Prix in 2014, Nugzari TATALASHVILI (GEO) and the bronze medallist of the last World Championships in Chelyabinsk, Victor SCVORTOV from the United Arab Emirates. Totally controlled by the strong kumikata of the Georgian, SCVORTOV was not able to engaged a single powerful attack and was even penalised with a shido, which looked enough to give the win to TATALASHVILI until the last three seconds. SCVORTOV launched an attack for no score on the edge of the fighting area but was able to immediately follow it on the floor to catch his opponent with an unstable immobilisation. However, this was enough for SCVORTOV to win one more medal for the United Arab Emirates on the occasion of a major international event.

The second bronze medal fight would secure another medal for the Dutch delegation as the two teammates Sam VAN T WESTENDE (NED) and Dex ELMONT (NED) faced off for the right to step on the podium. World number one ELMONT finally won the bronze with two waza-ari giving no chance to VAN T WESTENDE.