"I am very happy that the person who wrestled with us won a gold medal at the Olympic Games."
This was said by Orkhan Safarov, a former judoka of the Azerbaijan national team, who was a guest of the Idman. Bizde program.
The sports ambassador of the year commented on the gold medal won by Hidayat Heydarov in Paris 2024. He said that Joan-Benjamin Gaba, the competitor in the finals, did his best: "We had a video talk with Hidayat in the morning. He also showed me the Olympic medal. He still doesn't believe it. I told him to be "ready for anything" in Paris. After that race, he said, I understand why you say that. I had a lot of difficulties in the Olympics against the athletes I fought 5-6 times and won. Fortunately, he endured until the end. He approached each battle carefully and decisively and won. Hidayat's wrestling style is based on endurance. In addition, it makes wrestling more interesting with technical-tactical grips. Heydarov was ready for it. It was French's day. Maybe he won't wrestle like that again. After that, they faced each other 10 times, but Hidayat defeated him by ippon each time. But the support given to him yesterday encouraged him to wrestle in front of the local audience. He felt that he could do anything. Heydarov silenced him. During our conversation with him, he said that as the match progressed, I thought that I would not allow gold behind the opponent's judoka. If I see his name in gold, my heart was about to explode. In judo, the name and country of the Olympic champions are written in gold letters for 4 years. Heydarov has broken a leg."
Safarov said that with this victory Hidayat proved that his weight is the strongest: "Hidayat is one of the strongest not only in the history of Azerbaijani judo, but also in our sport. He has 4 European and 4 world titles. If we count the Olympic medal, we will see what we said. Until today, I have never seen an athlete win every competition in 1 year. Athletes are at their peak a maximum of 2 times a year. But doing it 3 times is an indication of how fit he is. Winning the pre-Olympic world champion title already means attracting everyone's attention. They also memorize wrestling. Being an Olympic champion after that is not in the history of judo. We can easily say that Hidayat Heydarov is the strongest judoka in the world."
Azerbaijani judoka Heydarov won Azerbaijan's first medal in France.
Emin Aga
Idman.biz
