It is the second day of the Tashkent Grand Prix. In the second round of the men -81kg category the Uzbek Sharofiddin Boltaboev warms up. He is going to face the Chinese Rigaqi Nai.
The speaker announces the contest, quotes the names of both judoka, the crowd stands up and applauds, the trumpets and drums sound, the referees prepare themselves and the photographers switch on their cameras. In short, the routine of each and everyone before a fight.
Boltaboev and Rigaqi bow to each other and the fight begins. Two seconds later, the fight is over. Two seconds!!!! The speaker had not finished his sentence, the public had not finished settling, the trumpets and drums were still sounded and the photographers had not yet taken place.
In two seconds Boltaboev executed a monumental tai-o-toshi. So huge and fast that even the official stopwatch took another second to set itself in time forever.
Stunning, everyone took another second to react with admiration and another one to realize that they had wittnessed something out of the ordinary.
"I have attended thousands of fights and I have never seen such a fast contest," said the International Judo Federation Sport Director Vladimir Barta. And to say this takes longer than the 2-second match.
It was the time to analyse the psychological aspect. What a joy for the Uzbek, delighted to win, delighted to delight his supporters and not get tired. What sadness for the Chinese, who had prepared for weeks and flown from China to Tashkent to make two seconds of act of presence.
Judo is like that, beautiful, intense, valuable, magical and some times very fast.
LINK TO THE MATCH: https://live.ijf.org/gp_uzb2019/contest_video/gp_uzb2019_m_0081_0047