Gold for Azeri Vugar Shirinli is characteristic for his career

At the Grand Prix in Tashkent Vugar Shirinli of Azerbaijan finally struck U60kg gold. For Azerbaijan’s five-man team in Tashkent he not only rediscovered his medal winning touch but made a breakthrough on the Grand Prix stage for the first time. The man who defeated triple Olympic champion Tadahiro Nomura in 2009 at the age of 17 now tasted the sweet of gold at World level.

The strong Russian Tbilisi Grand Prix bronze medallist Islam Yashuev took silver after falling by a waza-ari after four minutes against Former Baku Grand Slam silver medallist Shirinli who didn’t give up on gold this time, although he final wasn’t easy. Yashuev had won silver and bronze before at this level but today earned himself a gold medal that could see him play an increased role in the Azeri team.

In the first semi-final Shirinli bested 21-year-old Junior Asian Championships bronze medallist Doston Ruziev (UZB) by two waza-ari scores. Shirinli threw Ruziev with a drop seoi-nage for a waza-ari and the the crowd sensed that their judoka may have to turn his attention to going for bronze instead of gold. That was the case as the travelling Azeri doubled his advantage with a second waza-ari and secured a place in his first Grand Prix final.

In the second semi-final Paris Grand Slam silver medallist Sharafuddin Lutfillaev (UZB) fell to Yashuev by a waza-ari score. The Russian judoka caught the Uzbekistan star off guard when he launched an uchi-mata which was the only score of the contest as Lutfillaev failed to threaten the scoreboard.

The first bronze medal was won by Lutfillaev who beat Uzbekistan’s number three in the category and Asian Championships bronze medallist Mukhriddin Tilovov (UZB). Lutfillaev opened the scoring with a waza-ari from an uchi-mata and when he went back to it Tilovov attempted to avoid giving away the score by bridging which is against the rules due to the potential injury risk and the youngster was disqualified.  

The second bronze medal was won by world number 170 Abylaikhan Sharatov (KAZ) when Ruziev tried to bridge and received hansoku-make after only 13 seconds. Sharatov was appearing in a Grand Prix for the second time and completed a medal-winning day to ensure more outings for Kazakhstan before the year is out while Rustiev will rue his error.

Read more about the other categories in Tashkent.