"I knew I would be a champion."
Eljan Hajiyev, a judoka of the Azerbaijani national team, told Idman.biz.
He evaluated his performance at the Grand Slam tournament held in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. The judoka, who won the championship in the Grand Slam tournaments for the first time in his career, shared his impressions of the victory.
Hajiyev said that he had been looking forward to this competition for a long time: "I went through very difficult days after the Paris-2024 Summer Olympic Games. I had two operations and won a gold medal in my first competition."
Hajiyev, who faced another member of our national team, Vugar Talibov, in the final, singled out the decisive match: "I wouldn't say it was difficult, but my first match was a little different because I had been away from the arenas for months. Moreover, it was not easy to face a Tajik athlete in that atmosphere. But the main thing is that I won. The final match was difficult. I defeated my compatriot Vugar Talibov and won a gold medal. I had a lot of faith in myself in this competition. When I was injured, I was looking forward to the day I would enter the arena. I had said in advance that I would continue as I had started."
It should be noted that Eljan Hajiyev suffered a serious injury during the 1/8 final match of the Summer Olympic Games held in Paris, the capital of France.
Aytac Sahad
Idman.biz