Zelim Tckaev continues Azeri mood after double Olympic success

Azerbaijan continues its great path into judo. After the two Olympic gold medals in Paris, the country will need to keep the pressure high for any top athlete and Zelim Tckaev did just that at the first occasion in Abu Dhabi.

Second in Paris at the start of the season and winner of the Baku Grand Slam just after, Zelim Tckaev (AZE) had finally been logically chosen to participate in the Olympic Games, despite the tough competition with Saeid Mollaei in Azerbaijan during the entire Olympic qualification phase. Unfortunately for him, things did not go as planned and he was quickly eliminated in Paris during the summer.

Back in high-level competition on the occasion of this grand slam, Zelim Tckaev wanted to prove that he was one of the strong men in this -81 kg category which is always very competitive. Patient and not making any mistakes, he waited for the third penalty to fall against Botond Toth (HUN) to win his first contest. Opposed to Adrian Sulca (ROU) in the next round, he regained his efficiency by scoring a first waza-ari on an aerial uchi-mata, before doubling the stake on a magnificent uchi-mata-sukashi which totally surprised his opponent.

The first match for the bronze medal opposed Adrian Sulca (ROU) and David Karapetyan (IJF). The latter managed to score a waza-ari on o-soto-gari, a score that he could secure until the end of normal time to win the bronze medal.

Nugzari Tatalashvili (UAE) and Dimitri Gochilaidze (GEO) posed as contenders for a place on the podium. In golden score, Tatalashvili was penalised a third time for gripping the judogi under the belt. Bronze medal for Dimitri Gochilaidze.

On to the semi-final against Dimitri Gochilaidze (GEO), Tckaev overpowered him to open the doors to the final. This was not the last Georgian judoka of the day for him, however, since in the final he found Zaur Dvalashvili, at the height of a very good preliminary phase, while he was not one of the favorites of the competition.

Looking at the preliminary rounds, the final promised to be explosive, it was tactical and that is also what makes our sport so rich. As the golden score was fast approaching, Zelim Tckaev managed to launch a last yoko-tomoe-nage that drove Dvalashvili down to the ground for waza-ari. Gold medal for  Azerbaijan and Zelim Tckaev is back!