JUDO – BAHRAIN’S Paris 2024 Olympian Askerbii Gerbekov headlined an impressive three-medal haul for the kingdom in the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam 2025 in Mongolia.
Gerbekov, Israpil Sagaipov, and Said Sadrudinov all stepped onto the podium as bronze-medallists of their respective weight classes in the prestigious International Judo Federation (IJF) competition.
The meeting featured nearly 250 competitors, both men and women, representing 28 countries across four continents, and it was part of the 2025 IJF World Tour.
Gerbekov won his bronze medal in the men’s under-81kg division, while Sagaipov took third place in the men’s under-90kg, and Sadrudinov won bronze in the men’s under-100kg category.
In the under-81kg competition, Gerbekov was in Pool C for the preliminary round. He first defeated Kote Kapanadze of Georgia in his opening match but then lost to Adam Tsechoev, who was competing under the IJF banner. Tsechoev emerged as the winner of their pool.
Gerbekov dropped to the repechage round, where he was joined by fellow-Bahraini Gadzhidavud Gasanov. Gerbekov beat Seungchan Lee of South Korea and Gasanov defeated Murodjon Yuldoshev of Uzbekistan in their first matches of this stage. Gerbekov then overcame Mykhailo Svidrak of Ukraine to secure his podium appearance, but Gasanov fell to Tsechoev.
Gerbekov and Tsechoev shared the bronze medals, while gold was claimed by Yuhei Oino of Japan and silver was won by Gadzhimurad Omarov of the UAE.
In the under-90kg division, Sagaipov began his campaign with a win against Ibragimgadzhi Suleimanov of the UAE in Pool C of the preliminaries. He then defeated Jiaze Song of China to emerge as the pool’s winner to book a berth in the semi-finals. There, however, he lost to Japan’s Riku Okada to drop him to the repechage, where he beat Yermakhan Anuarbekov of Kazakhstan to secure his bronze medal.
Sagaipov shared third place with Ikhvan Edilsultanov, competing under the IJF banner, while gold was won by Okada and silver by Umar Bozorov of Uzbekistan.
In the under-100kg category, Sadrudinov hit the mat in Pool B, where he opened his campaign with a win against Enkhbayar Altanshagai of Mongolia. He then went on to beat Akhmed Magomadaov representing the IJF to take first place in his pool.
That earned him a spot in the semi-finals, where he lost to Anton Savytskiy of Ukraine, dropping him to the repechage round. There, Sadrudinov was the winner against IJF entrant Idar Bifov, earning him his bronze medal.
Sadrudinov shared third place with Nikoloz Sherazadishvili of Spain, while Savytskiy captured the gold medal and Zsombor Veg of Hungary took silver.
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