Rustam Alimli on the team going to the U-21 World Championship: "If you saw them in training, you would believe it yourself!"

The Azerbaijan U-21 national judo team is preparing for the World Championship to be held in Lima, the capital of Peru, on October 5-7.

Idman.biz talked to the head coach of the team, Rustam Alimli, about the upcoming competition.

– What is the level of the team's preparation? Which athletes can join the fight for "gold"?

– The guys are in excellent shape – they are ready for the most important tournament of the year. Our team has six judokas, and each of them has the strength to fight for a medal. These are Farid Garayev and Nihad Mamishov in the 60 kg weight category, Nizami Imranov and Mahammad Musayev in 66 kg, Suleyman Shukurov in 81 kg, and Ramazan Ahmadov in +100 kg.

– It is very gratifying to have a local judoka who can win a medal in the +100 kg weight category at the World Championship. Because there have been problems in this weight category among adults for a long time. But the striking point is that our team does not have members in the 73, 90 and 100 kg weight categories. What is the reason for this?

– We took only the judokas who are currently in the best shape to the World Championship – this does not depend on the weight category. I don't want to give a specific forecast, but as I said, each of the boys has the strength to win a medal in Lima. If you saw them in training, you would believe it yourself!

Vugar Vugarli

Idman.biz