Zelim Tckayev Wins Bronze at the World Championship

Azerbaijan's judo team won its first medal at the World Championships in Budapest. Zelim Tckayev, competing in the 81 kg weight category on the fourth day of the competition, won a bronze medal. It is the first time he has climbed the podium at the World Championships.

Idman.biz reports that Tckayev has started to make a name for himself in the international arena in recent years.

True, he struggled to show consistent results in major competitions. Although he has won the "Grand Slam" tournaments four times, he could not win medals at the World and European Championships. But this year was a turning point for him: after winning the "Grand Slam" tournament in Baku, he became the bronze medalist of the European Championship, and now he has won the bronze of the World Cup.

But the road to the medal was not easy: our judoka, who defeated Chinese Jinyan Wang and Brazilian Luan Almeida ahead of time, also performed well against Olympic bronze medalist Yun-Hvan Li and won with a "waza-ari" move. In the semi-final, he faced three-time world champion Tato Grigalashvili. A few months ago, these two athletes faced each other in the semi-final of the European Championship held in Podgorica, and then the Georgian judoka won in extra time with a controversial referee decision. This time, Tckayev did not perform badly, but Grigalashvili's two "yuko" moves were decisive.

The fight for bronze against UAE representative Nugzari Tatalashvili was difficult, but Tckayev's tactical preparation helped him. Although the opponent tried to gain the advantage from the beginning of the match, our athlete launched sharp counter-attacks and was close to using a painful move at the start. Although he tried several times for successful moves in the following course, Tatalashvili resisted, but received two "shido" for his passivity. In the "Golden score", Tckayev continued his attacks and as a result of the pressure, the opponent received the third "shido" - which earned our judoka the bronze medal of the World Championship.

This medal, as they say, came just in time. For Tckayev, the bronze officially confirmed that his talent is recognized at the world level, and it was also the first award of the Azerbaijani national team in Budapest.

Thanks to that bronze medal, our team rose to the 15th place in the overall ranking and has the opportunity to improve this position further. There are still three days of individual competitions ahead, followed by the team tournament.

Zaki Feyzullayev

Idman.biz