-100kg: Kotsoiev Continues Azerbaijan's Dream World Championships

The major story of the weight category was the battle for Olympic selection for Canada between Shady Elnahas and Kyle Reyes. With Elnahas leading in the Olympic rankings and the two drawn to meet at the semi-final, the battle would be settled once and for all in Abu Dhabi.

Both athletes were in top form and ensured that the all-Canadian semi-final became a reality. In pool A, Elnahas took out the powerful thrower Aaron Fara (AUT) in round two, throwing the Austrian with tsuri-goshi and later tani-otoshi to score two waza-aris. A comfortable tactical victory in round three over Zelimkhan Bashaev (BRN) followed and in the quarter-final Elnahas came up against former junior world champion Dota Arai (JPN), who looked to be in good form himself. Arai went ahead using o-uchi-gaeshi but Elnahas soon replied with an unusual uki-otoshi, before finishing the job in golden score using ko-soto-gake.

Meanwhile in pool B, Reyes defeated Zlatko Kumric in round two, following an uchi-mata with kami-shiho-gatame to score waza-ari-awasete-ippon. A waza-ari scored using a ko-uchi-gari to o-uchi-gari combination was enough to see him past Simeon Catharina (NED) in round three. In his quarter-final, Reyes endured a near seven-minute back-and-forth contest with Dzhakhongir Madzhidov (TJK) but eventually managed to pin the Tajik judoka using yoko-shiho-gatame to take the victory.

The all-Canadian semi-final was, unsurprisingly, a very close affair, but in the end, Reyes didn’t attack consistently enough, picking up a third and final shido in golden score, meaning Elnahas took the victory and the Olympic place, and progressed to his first world final to boot.

In the bottom half of the draw, the two standout performers were the double world champion Jorge Fonseca (POR) and double world bronze medallist Zelym Kotsoiev (AZE). Fonseca started the day the way we have come to expect from him. He threw Koussay Ben Ghares (TUN) with a huge sode-tsurikomi-goshi for ippon in the first minute of their round two contest, before throwing Anton Savytskiy (UKR) with ippon-seoi-nage to take a round three victory in just 10 seconds.

In the quarter-final Fonseca came up against George Udsilauri (GER), who had defeated third seed Michael Korrel (NED) and 3-time grand slam silver medallist Daniel Eich (SUI) in the earlier rounds as he tried to keep his Olympic qualification dreams alive. Though the German made Fonseca work for the full four minutes, another sode- in the second minute, which scored waza-ari, was enough to see the Portuguese powerhouse through to the semi-final.

Kotsoiev was in equally explosive form in the early rounds, defeating Jonghoon Won (KOR) in round two using a circling ko-uchi-gari, before later securing a hold down to end the contest. Against 2023 world bronze medallist Peter Paltchik (ISR) in round three, he scored waza-ari and then ippon soon after using uchi-mata and a strong tsuri-goshi to progress in under three minutes. His quarter-final opponent would be double world champion at -90kg, Nikoloz Sherazadishvili (ESP). The contest was marked by fierce gripping exchanges but after escaping a hold down from the Spaniard, the Azeri took a tactical victory in the second minute of golden score to move into the semi-final to face Fonseca.

Kotsoiev has an unmatched record against Fonseca, winning six of their seven encounters prior to today and he extended that record here. He outgripped the Portuguese man and threw him with uchi-mata before landing in yoko-shiho-gatame and pinning him to confirm the win. With that, the Azeri guaranteed a career-best result at the world championships by making it through to the final.

In the final, Kotsoiev struck the decisive blow after the first minute, throwing Elnahas for waza-ari using the unusual hikikomi-gaeshi made famous by the all-Georgian -90 kg final from last year’s world championships. Though Elnahas dominated the remainder of the contest, forcing the Azeri to pick up two penalties, Kotsoiev held on to take the victory and a deserved first world title. After Hidayat Heydarov’s victory in the -73 kg category at this event, Kotsoiev becomes only the third Azerbaijani world champion in history.

Arai overcame Madzhidov in their repechage contest using ko-soto-gake and o-uchi-gari to move into the first bronze medal contest, where he would take on Fonseca. The prodigious Japanese athlete stunned his vastly more experienced opponent, throwing him with uchi-mata to score waza-ari just 15 seconds into the contest. Not only that, he followed up in the third minute with another swirling uchi-mata to score ippon and take a brilliant first senior world medal, at the age of just 19.

In the other repechage bout, Sherazadishvili held Udsilauri with yoko-shiho-gatame, ending the German’s Paris Olympic dream and advancing to the other bronze medal contest to face Reyes. The contest was an intriguing kenka-yotsu or right-versus-left affair, with Sherazadishvili aiming to pull his opponent in and throw using his hips, while Reyes tried to maintain distance and throw using his legs. After a brutal 9 minutes of fighting, the exhausted Reyes picked up a third and final penalty for a false attack. Sherazadishvili had therefore earned his first world medal since moving up from -90 kg.