Idman.biz
Azerbaijani Olympic judo champion Zelim Kotsoyev has risen to the top of the world rankings in the 100 kg weight category without participating in the "Grand Slam" series tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan.
According to Idman.Biz, the International Judo Federation (IJF) has updated the world ranking based on the results of the Astana tournament, which ended last weekend.
According to the updated list, Azerbaijani judoka Zelim Kotsoyev (5120 points) rose from second to first place after being disqualified following an unsuccessful performance at the European Championships in Tbilisi in mid-April and not competing in the international arena since then. This change occurred due to a decrease in the ranking points of the previously leading Japanese Dota Arai (4850 points).
Interestingly, Arai, like Kotsoyev, did not participate in the "Grand Slam" tournament in Astana. Zelim Kotsoyev's rise to first place is due to the peculiarities of the IJF's ranking point system. In the International Judo Federation's ranking system, points are not permanently retained: for the first year after a tournament, an athlete retains 100 percent of the points earned, after 12 months these points are automatically halved, and after two years they are completely removed.
This rule is precisely what caused the situation with Japanese Dota Arai - his victory in last year's "Grand Slam" tournament in Kazakhstan is no longer counted as a full 1000 points, but has been reduced to 500 points. As a result, the Japanese judoka lost his lead, and Kotsoyev rose to the first place in the world ranking without competing in Astana.
Returning to the "Grand Slam" tournament in Astana, it should be noted that the only athlete among Azerbaijani judokas who won a medal there was heavyweight Ushangi Kokauri. He won a silver medal at the tournament. Thanks to this result, Kokauri moved up three places in the world ranking in the over 100 kg weight category and rose to second place with 4217 points.
The positions of other leaders of the Azerbaijani national team remained unchanged: Balabey Agayev (60 kg, 3658 points) - 4th place, Ruslan Pashayev (66 kg, 3413 points) - 5th place, Hidayat Heydarov (73 kg, 4046 points) - 5th place, Zelim Tckaev (81 kg, 3562 points) - 5th place and Murad Fatiyev (90 kg, 2656 points) - 9th place.
