"Although our karatekas performed a little weak in individual matches, they did well in the team competition."
Shahin Khudaverdiyev, head coach of the Azerbaijan national team of female karate players, gave a statement Idman.biz's correspondent sent to Miskolc.
The experienced specialist evaluated the performance of the students of the Azerbaijan Sports Academy at the European University Games in Hungary. He said that the karate players of the team he led had some difficulty in adapting on the first day, but soon everything was fine.
“We were feeling tired because of the weather. It was kind of hard to adapt. On the second day of the competition, our karate players began to perform better. Our men's team reached the finals, and women won a bronze medal. Also, one of our students qualified for the decisive match in the individual competition.”
He also explained the reason for the defeat of the Azerbaijan Sports Academy to the University of Pristina (Kosovo) in the quarter-finals of the women's team competition: "We had everything set up correctly. We could not advance to the final due to a small technical error. Also, the height difference was one of the important factors. Kosovans were very tall - about 175-180 centimeters. Our karate players are 160-165 centimeters tall. Nevertheless, our team fought. The opponent won not by a clear victory, but by points. In any case, we will return home with a medal. We beat the local Hungarian University of Sports Sciences for the third place."
Khudaverdiyev also said that he was satisfied with the result: "Most of our teams, both women's and men's, are young and students. Some are participating in such a big competition for the first time, taking their first steps. Nevertheless, they justified themselves. We were indeed expecting a lot of medals. Especially from men. But unfortunately, the problem of adaptation did not allow it. We will have two more finals today. I hope that these battles will end successfully and we will add 2 gold awards to our collection in addition to the bronze medal."
Today Farid Savadov (60 kg) will face Andras László (Korvinus University, Hungary) in the championship match in the committee, and our men's team will face Istanbul Aydın University.
Idman.biz
