Hidayet Heydarov gives Azerbaijan second gold after European hatrick

Azerbaijan was the only country with two gold medals after the first day of the Junior European Championships in Malaga. Seven winning nations and both Russia and Georgia, usually among the most successful junior nations, both lost two finals each.

The first gold was for France, in a French all final U44kg it was Justine Deleuil who captured her second European title. In 2014 she won the Cadet Europeans and she is perfectly in line with the expectations. She won her final against Marine Gilly. Usually their mutual battles are won by Deleuil, today wasn’t different.

The big story was on the side of Daria Bilodid of the Ukraine. She became the first judoka ever who won the European Cadet title and Junior title in one year. The Cadet World Champion is just 15 and already books spectacular results. She is one of the youngest ever Junior European Champions. Bilodid defeated another Daria, Pichkaleva. Last year’s champion Reka Pupp lost in the semi to Bilodid, but won bronze after all.

The gold U52kg was for Serbia, Nadezda Petrovic who defeated Irem Korkmaz of Turkey in the final. Petrovic won the fourth European junior title for Serbia since 2010, so the success becomes structural and perhaps there’s more possible at day 2 with former European Junior champ Nemanja Majdov. Petrovic said: “Actually I thought it is impossible for me to win a medal today. The gold medal is a little surprise for me. I had a good draw. In all honesty only the semi-final was tough against Anja STANGAR. After this victory everything was much more easy and I felt this big opportunity to get gold and I did it… My secret? I can’t give up but maybe my skills in ne-waza. I won 3 of 4 fights in the ground.” In a strong competition Kormaz surprised Mariam Janashvili and last year’s winner Astride Gneto. The French won bronze as well as Tihea Topolovec of Croatia.

The gold for Germany U57kg was a bonus. Pauline Starke was not expected with a gold medal, but the German knew when to peak as this was her second major event and at the previous, the European Cadet Championships, she won bronze. This year though in Leibnitz she showed her capabilities and took gold, it was a golden warmup for Malaga. Starke defeated Andreja Leski (SLO) in the final. Last year's winner Stefania Dobre won bronze.

Azeri Natig Gurbanli won the category U55kg against Alii Pafov of Russia. The second Azeri, Karamat Huseynov finished fifth. The second gold was for Hidayet Heydarov. In his new category U73kg he is again able to win the gold. He won Cadet European titles U60kg and U66kg, now a new medal U73kg. Only Russian Irina Dolgova and Natalia Kuziutina achieved that in the past. Heydarov: 

“I am really happy to win a Junior European title. I won the Cadet Europeans on two occasions however this is extra special. For sure part of the reason is because I lost to Katsiashvili previously and so to beat him in the final of a Junior Europeans makes me really happy and satisfied. My next challenge will be to win the U23 Europeans in Tel Aviv in November.”

Dutchman, with Georgian name, Tornike Tsjakadoea won the European title U60kg, a good achievement and his first big title. Last year he won bronze at the European U23s and in 2013 bronze at the World Cadet Championships and bronze at the EYOF. But this year he already impressed at the European Cup in Coimbra and international Masters in Bremen both with gold. In the final he overcame Neil MacDonald who was in a great shape and seemed to win the gold today but got caught by surprise after three minutes. Tsjakadoea defeated Manuel Lombardo and Joland Florimont on his way to the final, and both won bronze.

Dzmitry Minkou  of Belarus won the first European Junior title for his country since 2005, by Andrei Kiptsevich. The first of six European title was won by the later Olympic Champion Ihar Makarau. Minkou bested Tornike Nagliashvili of Georgia.

None of the title winners was able to qualify for the finals this year, although some of today’s winner seemed to cement their title for a few years. The only challenge is to stay as impressive as they were today.