"Our judokas finished the first day of the competition with two medals. However, we expected more from our team".
Idman.Biz reports with reference to AZERTAC that these words were said by Rashad Rasullu, Executive Vice-President of the Azerbaijan Judo Federation, while talking about the results of the first day at the European Championship among adults held in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.
He said that they expected a gold medal from the athletes:
"We were satisfied with the performance of our athletes competing in 60 and 66 kilograms. It can be said that they made minor mistakes. We were especially pleased that Turan Bayramov won a medal. After he changed his weight, the results came one after another. Our girls also did not perform badly. But we would like it to be better".
R.Rasullu shared his thoughts on Balabay Agayev's semi-final match:
"There were opinions about the referee's injustice. But we cannot comment on this because we are not experts. But Balabay is in very good shape now. He suffered in all matches, he wanted to win a medal. More work is needed for higher results".
The ACF official also shared his expectations from the national team leader Hidayat Heydarov (73 kilograms): "Hidayat wrestles more comfortably with opponents he knows and whose playing style he knows. However, the result is different in matches with unfamiliar judokas. It is difficult to give an accurate forecast".
It should be noted that Azerbaijan is represented by 15 judokas, including 9 men and 6 women, in the prestigious tournament that will last until April 19. On the first day of the competition, Ahmad Yusifov (60 kilograms) and Turan Bayramov (66 kilograms) won bronze medals.