JUDO
FEDERATION

One of the most prestigious judo tournaments “World Masters” concluded in Tyumen, the press service of the Kazakhstan Judo Federation informs. Kazakhstani Judoka Sergei Lim won a gold medal of the tournament there.

The invitations to the tournament are sent only to the best judokas of the world rankings, top 16 athletes. This time, five sportsmen from our country went to Tyumen to the tournament – Askhat Telmanov (60 kg), Eldos Smetov (60 kg), Sergei Lim (66 kg), Islam Bozbayev (90 kg) and Maxim Rakov (100 kg).

High level of professional preparedness allowed Sergei Lim to win the gold medal of the tournament.

In his first bout, Lim won by ippon against his opponent from Azerbaijan Nijat Shikhalizade just mere seconds before the end of the match. The next match of Lim was against a host of the tournament from Russian, Alim Gadanov, the champion of Europe in 2012, which he also won and advanced closer to the finals. In the semifinals, Sergei was able to come out victorious over his opponent from France David Larose. In the final match S. Lim faced Japanese judoka Takajo Tomofumi. After three minutes of a match Lim scored ippon and deservedly stepped on the first place of the pedestal.

In the 60 kg category, two sportsmen represented our country and they both had a good chance to win a medal of the tournament. Askhat Telmanov won his first bout against Artyom Arshansky from Israel. He also had good match against number one in the rankings judoka from Japan Takato Naohisa. Naohisa, however, scored two yuko and secured a victory. In the consolation match, Telmanov lost by ippon to bronze medal winner of the Olympic Games-2012 Brazilian judoka Felipe Kitadai. In the final rankings, Telmanov was ranked seventh.

Champion of the Youth World Championship Eldos Smetov also started well winning his first two matches by ippon but then lost in the third bout. Mongolian judoka Ganbat Boldbaatar was stronger than Eldos and finally became a bronze medal winner of the tournament. In his match for bronze, Eldos lost to Brazilian Kitadai. Nevertheless, Smetov was ranked fifth in the final rankings.

Islam Bazbayev was also invited to the tournament. He changed the weight category after the Olympic Games-2012, from 81 kg to 90 kg. Unfortunately, Bozbayev lost his first match to Russian athlete Kirill Denissov and could not continue his contention for medals. Maxim Rakov also failed to advance to the second round of the tournament losing to Uzbek Ramziddin Saidov.

However, the results of the World Masters-2013 can be considered as successful for the judokas of Kazakhstan, we brought gold from the tournament.

As earlier reported, Tyumen became the fourth city to hold this tournament. The first tournament was held in Korean Suwon in 2009 and then in Baku, in Azerbaijan, in 2010. The third host city of the tournament was Almaty in 2012 thanks to the work of the Kazakhstan Judo Federation.