JUDO – BAHRAIN’S Askerbii Gerbekov bagged a bronze medal yesterday in the Qingdao Grand Prix 2025 – an elite senior men’s competition held as part of this year’s International Judo Federation (IJF) World Tour calendar.
Gerbekov claimed his place on the podium in the men’s under-81kg division.
His bronze headlined an impressive showing from the kingdom’s judokas in yesterday’s programme, with another set of Bahraini athletes set to hit the mat today.
Askerbii is part of a seven-strong national squad in China. There are 200 participants representing 26 nations in the event who are battling it out across seven different weight-classes.
Gerbekov put in a stellar performance yesterday en route to securing his ranking in his division’s top three. He kicked off his campaign with an undefeated run in his two matches in Pool D of the preliminary round. Gerbekov first defeated Youxiu from China after scoring a waza-ari in their contest, and then defeated Junseong Lee from South Korea in his next match with an ippon.
That earned Gerbekov his spot in the semi-finals as Pool D winner, but he then lost to Xinglong Cha of China in their final four clash. The Paris 2024 Olympian made up for that defeat by beating Gadzhimurad Omarov from the UAE with an ippon in one of two bronze medal bouts.
Gerbekov thus shared the podium’s third step with Vedat Albayrak of Türkiye, while Japan’s Yoshito Hojo won the under-81kg gold and Cha took silver.
Bahrain’s Gadzhidavud Gasanov was also competing in the same weight category yesterday. Slotted into Pool A for the preliminaries, Gasanov suffered an early exit after losing his opening bout against Adilet Almat from Kazakhstan.
Elsewhere yesterday, Mukhamed Aloev and Ramazan Kodzhakov were in action for the kingdom in the men’s under-73kg class. They were both eliminated in the opening stage, however.
Aloev won his first match in Pool D against Bereke Rakhmatullauly after throwing for an ippon. But he then lost in his next outing against Jack Yonezuka from the US, ending his medal bid. Kodzhakov, on the other hand, was ousted in his opening encounter against Steven Boldbaatar from the US in Pool B.
Meanwhile, three of Bahrain’s other judokas will be continuing their medal hunt today in Qingdao, including Israpil Sagaipov in the men’s under-90kg category, Said Sadrudinov in the men’s under-100kg class, and Azamat Chotchaev in the men’s over-100kg division.
Sagaipov begins his campaign against Astemir Abazov representing the IJF in Pool D of his weight division. Sadrudinov takes on Michal Jedrzejewski of Poland in Pool B of his class, while Chotchaev takes to the mat against Dong Lin of China in Pool C of his weight group.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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