JUDO
FEDERATION

Eldos Bahtybaevich Smetov

A member of Judo national team of the Republic of Kazakhstan

It is said that a person’s fortune is predetermined since his birth and that it is destined to become popular in one or another sphere. Many of talented sportsmen were lead by this guiding star during the entire life, but earth obstacles sometimes were too hard to be negotiated. A lot of strength was needed to be able to stand up, recover and move forward – towards their plans, aims and dreams. A young Kazakhstan judoka Eldos Smetov is a bright example, which proves that no deprivations and falls can keep from aims achievement and actions in mentors’, relatives’ and friends’ joy.

Eldos Bahtybaevich Smetov was born on the 9^th of September 1992 in Taraz city. As in fortunes of many future champions, in his life his elder brother Zhandos Smetov, who also practiced judo professionally, played a great role. Boys since childhood liked to wrestle, even at times when they lived in village. Despite of the large age difference (Eldos was five and his brother was nine) they got in judo section at the same time. Zhandos’ interest for freestyle wrestling influenced the active childhood of Eldos. He repeated everything after his brother, imitating his actions and constantly fighting with each other. They joined judo section being in Taraz. At that time boys’ parents didn’t have enough time for children, so the boys were left to themselves. It happened that near their house there was a big sports school and the boys were curious what would happen if they entered. And there was that magic turning of fortune – active young sportsmen found themselves in a large judo hall. Eldos just froze up admiringly, watching judokas in beautiful white kimono who were competing, performing holds and flips. Here brothers’ warm blood made itself obvious – they began to jump and wrestle in that hall till a trainer came to them and asked where they were from. That trainer was Akhmet Zhumagulov – the first personal trainer of Eldos. Smetov tried to do boxing, kick-boxing, freestyle wrestling, sambo, but fixed upon judo. It happened that turn of events and place, as well as beautiful kimono influenced greatly further life of the Kazakhstan judoka. The sportsman’s brother Zhandos Smetov began to do judo professionally too, but after knee injury in 2008 he quitted sport for a long time. By now he is gradually recovering.

The first bright victorious memory of Eldos Smetov was a prize title of the republic tournament which was held in Almaty in 1998. Eldos was only six at that time, but he was competing in the category up to 21 kg, while his own weight was 18 kg. Young sportsmen were not given any medals at those times and the little winner received a flower vase as a prize, which during all this time was inside the plasma TV box. It was one of the most sad child soreness of the judoka.

Due to workload, as well as due to young years of their children, Smetov’s parents were not serious about childish hobby of their sons. For them it was only boys’ pastime. But in 7^th grade Eldos Smetov entered sport boarding school named after Kazhymukan Munaitpasov in Astana, and the father of the future champion started to think about seriousness of his son’s intentions. In 9^th grade, after transfer to the sport boarding school in Almaty, Eldos Smetov started to participate in youth championships of the country. In the first year he took the prize third line of the republic tournament, and a year later he won the silver of the championship. Having noticed high achievements of the perspective sportsman on the country level, trainers sent him to the competition in Germany. There, Eldos also could demonstrate the best result. Thanks to his awards, the judoka went to the championship of Asia. Is there any need to say that the sportsman managed to justify the entrusted hopes in that championship? The logical bright conclusion of that year became the victory of the judoka in the youth championship of the world.

In that first championship of the world in Morocco Eldos participated in the weight class up to 55 kg, and a year later in the world competition in Capetown he went out on tatami in the weight up to 60 kg. That time Eldos Smetov gained only bronze medal due to the special attitude of judges towards Japanese judokas. Besides, after transfer to another weight class it became harder to fight, because considering the specifics of rules and technique of judo, a mass plays an important role in this kind of sport. Mostly, judokas have much greater weight before the participation in this sort of competitions, and Eldos had constant mass of 58 kg. He could win due to the speed, but unfortunately, he lost due to his mass.

A little later during championships of Kazakhstan a bad physical state of our judoka started to have an impact on the outcomes of the competitions. One month before the tournament he got sick, lost weight and could not recover. Those troubles of fortune at the age of nine barely deprived the young sportsman of the great future – in his childhood he had an open craniocerebral trauma and concussion of the brain. Eldos was going on the swings and apparently oscillated too much – the pillar fell down and bumped into his head. At that moment he didn’t think of leaving professional sport while his parents were insisting on it. The whole year was needed for Eldos to recover, and then he decided to return to judo. And that was for a reason. Great victories were awaiting him.

Starting from 2012 the judoka began to perform for the adult national team of Kazakhstan. Since the beginning being in the adult staff the sportsman has been through a lot – the thing was that Eldos had enough technique for the victory, but his rivals won due to their mass. In 2013 the first victory came to Eldos Smetov in the adult team – Eldos Smetov took the bronze medal in the championship of Asia, which was held in Bangkok, also the collection of the national team was filled with the silver medal of the stage of Grand Prix in Samsun and Europe Cup in Tbilisi, and also with the gold of the Open Cup of Europe in judo in Warsaw.

Because of the preparation for the World Championship in judo which was held in August 2013 in Rio-de-Janeiro, Eldos didn’t go both to the Universiade in Kazan and to the Grand-slam in Moscow. Instead of him another sportsman – Ibrayev Rustam participated, who had won Eldos in the championship of Kazakhstan in the final.

Unfortunately, Eldos Smetov didn’t manage to break into the final of the championship of the world in Rio, however he entered the Top-7 of the best judokas in the individual rating. At the moment the judoka keeps the 9^th place in the overall world rating.

Eldos Smetov has been studying in the Kazakh national university named after Al-Farabi in the faculty of biology and biotechnology. His father is a businessman and his mother is a housekeeper. The judoka himself is not planning to be satisfied with the achieved results and is aimed at nothing else but victory.