In Tbilisi the lightest of the men’s categories delivered explosive, fast-paced judo from the very first ‘hajime’ of the day. On the top half of the draw, the top seeds did as their ranking invited them to do. On the bottom half of the draw, it was a different story!
Number one seed Balabay Aghayev (AZE) reached his semi-final with little disturbance while Giorgi Sardalashvili, the defending continental champion, had an equally smooth ride. Their shared semi-final gave each athlete a much harder time though. Aghayev led by a yuko, much to the disappointment of the crowd but they continued to support their star and buoyed by the encouragement, Sardalashvili never gave up, attacking harder and harder as the time went on.
With 14 seconds remaining, all looked lost for the Georgian but heart is something he has never been short of and in a flurry of movement he caught the Azerbaijani and a landing worth consideration was scrutinised for some time. As the referee signalled for a waza-ari to be logged, the crowd erupted and Sardalashvili knew he had done enough. Not complacent, he kept his focus to the last second and moved into the final.
From the bottom half of the draw, it was French double Olympic medallist Luka Mkheidze, seeded 5th, who earned the right to compete for gold, against Sardalashvili. He delivered a series of confident wins in the morning session, poise and refined technique at the centre of his performance. In the final he continued in the same vein and it was a lot for Sardalashvili to handle.
Home spectators brought energy and volume as their athlete walked into the arena but Mkheidze paid no attention to that, focusing only on his own task and goal. Differing styles but similar levels could be seen under the spotlights of the Olympic Palace in Tbilisi but with just under a minute and a half to go, Mkheidze made space to grapple his opponent to the floor, transitioning neatly into a reverse juji-gatame for ippon.
There was visible emotion from both judoka but for very different reasons. The silver was for Georgia but France had their second gold medal in as many categories, following Boukli’s win at -48 kg. This is Luka Mkheidze’s second senior European title.
In the first bronze medal contest, 28-year-old Dilshot Khalmatov (UKR), already a European medallist, faced Izhak Ashpiz (ISR), ten years his junior, a young judoka still competing on the -21 circuit. Despite the very different banks of experience, it was the latter who found the space to score, taking the lead with a beautifully timed ko-uchi. Khalmatov could not equalise and so the young Israeli would climb on to the podium for the first time at a senior European championship.
In an all-Azerbaijani medal contest, the second bronze of the category could only have one flag assigned to it, but two men were ready to step forward and give everything for their name to be scribed in the history books.
Ahmad Yusifov and Balabay Aghayev could have been forgiven for arriving with a cautious approach but the latter, more aggressive and more physical, began with an openness that allowed Yusifov to take control. He did so without hesitation and won the bronze medal, the second in as many years for the 26-year-old.
Author: Jo Crowley