If the Olympic Games in Los Angeles may still seem to be far away, make no mistake, the future is being prepared now, in Baku.
Azerbaijan is a country of judo and Baku has become one of the temples of world judo over the years. To be convinced, one only had to observe the public who came in large numbers to appreciate the spectacle offered by the judoka involved today.
Zelym Kotsoiev (AZE), world champion and Olympic champion in 2024, is not competing this weekend, but he also did not want to miss a crumb of the very high-level show that took place at the National Gymnastics Arena. "After the Paris Games, it was a bit crazy to come back here to Azerbaijan where judo is really very popular. For a few weeks the emotion was at its peak. But now I am back to training and I am preparing hard for the months and years to come," said the champion.
There is no doubt that, like Kotsoiev or his teammate, also world champion and Olympic champion, Hidayat Heydarov, judo is the number one sport in the country. The ambitions of the national team and the federation are great.
In this very tough context, it was the Japanese team that took the lion's share on this first day, placing no fewer than eight athletes in the finals and thus taking the lead in the ranking by nation.
On the second day of competition, four new categories will be in action with the -63 kg and -70 kg for women, and the -73 kg and -81 kg for men. Follow everything live on https://judotv.com/