The cadet European Judo Cup in Goygol is underway and by the end of the first day of competition the host nation took the lead on the overall medal table with two gold, one silver and seven bronze medals.
At the start of the competition the home team dominated amongst the male light weights which have long been their calling card. Mahammadali Husiyev defeated Aleksei Toptygin (AIN) in the final of the -50kg category whilst Nihad Mamishov overcome Luka Darispanashvili (GEO) in the -55kg final. A weight above, in the -60kg Farid Garayev had to settle for silver as Bahrom Asatov (UZB) had proven to be the better of the two. The -66kg final was a skip for the home crowd and instead it had come to be an all individual neutral athletes final with Iaroslav Bunakov and Abdullakh Parchiev. Bunakov walked away with the gold.
Amongst the female weight categories the Azeri team managed to clinch four bronzes whilst the majority of the gold medals were claimed by individual neutral athletes with the exception of the -40kg category where Turkiye found themselves to have a national final between Havva Sena TOKMAK and Yagmur YILMAZTURK. Tokmak took glory.
Congratulations to all medallists and best of luck to the rest of the judoka who are yet to compete.
Author: Szandra Szogedi