"I'm happy to be on the podium."
These words were said by Azerbaijani judoka Jamal Feyziyev, who won a silver medal at the European Open Tournament among adults held in Warsaw, the capital of Poland.
The athlete, competing in the +100 kg weight category, stated that he went to the competition with the goal of a gold medal.
"I became a champion at the International Open Tournament held in Vise, Belgium. However, it is currently the month of Ramadan, and most athletes are fasting. For this reason, we only train once a day. This decision was made in accordance with the advice of our head coach. Despite all the difficulties, we continue our preparations. Of course, these factors have a certain impact in the competition environment and create additional difficulties for some athletes, including myself," he said in a statement to AZERTAC.
C.Feyziyev said that he highly appreciates the silver medal he won: "I value this result as a gold medal. In the final, I faced local athlete Grzegorz Teresinski. During the match, the judges awarded two waza-ari points. However, according to the rules, these were yuko-level episodes. Our coaches were also watching my performance, and in their opinion, the decisions were not fair. The possibilities for protest in judo are limited. Although one of our coaches wanted to express his position, the judges said that the final decision was unchangeable."
The judoka also evaluated his performance in the tournament: "I didn't have any serious difficulties in any of the matches. However, I made some mistakes and I need to work on them. Two years ago, I lost to my German opponent in the first match of this competition. This time, I took revenge by defeating him."
He said that the risk of injury is high in the heavyweight category: "This is a feature of judo. Injuries are inevitable, so it is important to wrestle wisely. Thank God, I haven't faced any serious injuries so far."
It should be noted that the Azerbaijani national team finished the two-day tournament with 3 medals. In addition to Jamal Feyziyev, Tofig Mammadov (66 kilograms) and Elmar Gasimov (100 kilograms) won bronze medals.