JUDO – Bahrain’s international judoka Said Sadrudinov climbed the podium in the men’s under-100kg category at the Ecole Mont-Olivet Lausanne Grand Slam 2026, held in Lausanne Switzerland.
Competing amongst a high-quality field of elite athletes from around the world, Sadrudinov took a share of third place, earning the sole accolade for the kingdom’s senior men’s judo national team in the International Judo Federation (IJF) competition.
Sadurdinov was one of seven Bahrainis hitting the mat in Lausanne, with others narrowly missing out on the top three in their respective weight classes.
In the men’s under-100kg division, Sadrudinov opened his medal bid by winning Pool D of the preliminary round.
He took all three of his matches against Denis Cedric Ngouyassa Bekai of the Central African Republic, Daniel Liubimovski of the US, and Idar Bifov from Russia.
That earned him his place in the semi-finals, where he lost to Ilia Sulamanidze from Georgia, dropping him to the repechage for a chance at bronze.
Sadrudinov made the most of his opportunity, beating Arman Adamian of Russia to secure his place on the podium, which he shared with fellow-bronze medallist Ernazar Sarsenbaev of Uzbekistan. Sulamanidze struck gold after overcoming Simeon Catharina from the Netherlands in the final.
Meanwhile, also in Lausanne were Ruslan Poltoratskii in the men’s under-60kg category, Israpil Sagaipov in the men’s under-90kg, Mukhamed Aloev in the men’s under-73kg, Sukhrob Boqiev in the men’s under-66kg, and Gadzhidavud Gasanov and Askerbii Gerbekov in the men’s under-81kg class.
Poltoratskii was the kingdom’s other judoka who came closest to taking a medal. He lost his repechage match against Michel Augusto from Brazil, who went on to claim a share of bronze.
Poltoratskii had earlier won Pool A in the preliminaries, where he defeated Jozef Tomanek from Slovakia, Loiq Kudbudinov from Tajikistan, and Dilshot Khalmatov from Ukraine.
In the men’s under-90kg division, Sagaipov lost in the Pool D semi-finals to Maxime-Gael Ngayap Hambou from France.
He earlier won against Luka Javakhishvili from Georgia and Thomas Scharfetter from Austria.
In the men’s under-73kg, Aloev also lost in the penultimate round of Pool C to Kazbek Naguchev from the UAE.
He opened his campaign with wins over Hai Ba Nguyen from Vietnam and Ray Marinx from Belgium.
In the men’s under-66kg, Boqiev bowed out in his very first match against Ruslan Pashayev from Azerbaijan in preliminary Pool A.
In the men’s under-81kg weight class, Gasanov triumphed against Vusal Galandarzade from Azerbaijan and Dominic Rodriguez from the US, but then lost in his Pool B semi-final to Georgii Elbakiev from the UAE.
Gerbekov, on the other hand, beat Valentin Houinato from Benin in his Pool D opening bout but then lost to Mykhailo Svidrak from Ukraine in the next, bowing out of further contention.
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