Judoists of Turkmenistan won gold and silver medals at the «Warsaw European Open 2024» tournament that ended today in Poland, 14 sets of awards of which were competed by 458 athletes (295 men and 163 women) from 37 countries of four continents over two days.
The highest award in our team, which was represented by 8 athletes (5 men and 3 women), was won by Maysa Pardayeva. A 19-year-old 1st year student of the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Education and Sports achieved this remarkable success in the weight category up to 57 kg, in which 30 athletes from 25 countries competed for medals.
On the way to gold, our compatriot won five clear victories. In the first match, Maysa, due to two marks, won against Yevgeniya Gaich (Slovenia). Then, in the quarterfinals and semifinals, in the 3rd minute of the bouts, she defeated by «ippon», respectively, the silver medalist of the 2023 Junior European Cup in Graz, Austria, Verena Hiden (Austria) and the bronze medalist of the XXXI Summer Universiade in Chengdu (China), the winner of the February tournament «Gyor European Open 2024» in Hungary Martu Fawaz (France).
In the final, M. Pardayeva, at the expense of the second, defeated «Waza-ari», who took second place at the 2022 European Junior Championships in Prague and third place at the 2024 Open European Tournament in Győr (Hungary), Marta Garcia Martin (Spain) ), who won a silver medal. Martha Fawaz (France) and bronze medalist of the Prague European Open 2023 tournament Shannon Van de Meberg (Netherlands) received bronze medals.
Maysa Pardayeva first made people talk about herself in 2022, when she won the Junior Asian Cup in Almaty. In 2023, she repeated the same success at competitions in Tashkent. Last year, this talented judoka also won silver at the 2023 Junior European Cup in Sarajevo and bronze at the Asian Open Tournament in Kuwait and the 19th Summer Asian Games in Hangzhou.
At the Asian Games in China, Maysa Pardayeva was entrusted with becoming the standard bearer of the Turkmenistan team at their opening ceremony. And she not only coped with this role brilliantly, but also highly raised the country’s sporting prestige, winning a medal at the main complex competitions of the year. Over the past month, M. Pardayeva has risen three steps in the world women's rankings, occupying 41st place in the weight category up to 57 kg with 1375 points.
The second medal for the Turkmenistan team at the Warsaw European Open 2024 tournament was brought by 20-year-old Serdar Rahimov, who won silver in the weight category up to 66 kg, in which 48 judokas from 36 countries competed for awards.
On the way to silver success, our compatriot won four clear victories. In the first match, Serdar beat Szymon Szymanski (Poland) in 1 minute, and in the second, he forced Adilbek Berikul (Kazakhstan) to capitulate at the end of the last minute.
In the quarterfinals, the winner had to be determined in an additional fight («Golden Speed») before the action was effective, since the main 4 minutes of the fight ended without scores. And here we must pay tribute to S. Rahimov, who, demonstrating an iron will, «ippon» snatched victory from the 24-year-old silver medalist of the 2021 European Cup in Dubrovnik (Croatia) and the 2023 Belgian Open Championship in Visa Benjamin Gomez (France).
In the semi-finals, Serdar won a beautiful victory over the 28-year-old winner of the European Open 2023 in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Prague (Czech Republic) Samuel Hall (Great Britain) in the 52nd second of the fight. And in the final, in an additional fight («Golden Speed») with Nikita Goloborodko (Ukraine), he missed the throw on «Waza-ari» and ultimately settled for second place. Bronze medals in this weight were awarded to the British Samuel Hall and the 22-year-old winner of the European Open 2023 in Rome (Italy) Charlie Young.
This is not the first time Serdar Rahimov has climbed to the podium at major international competitions. Last year he won silver at the European Open Championship in Rome and gold at the Junior European Cup in Sarajevo. And now he has become a silver medalistat the Warsaw European Open 2024 tournament. In the men's ranking, Serdar takes 46th place in the weight category up to 66 kg with 1056 points.
Maysa Pardayeva and Serdar Rahimov are students of the Lebap wrestling school. Maysa began training judo in the Koytendag etrap with local coach Jora Matnazarov, and Serdar began training in Hojambaz with Bayram Sherapov. Currently, these judokas are improving their sports skills in the national team of Turkmenistan, which in 2023 will be headed by Japanese specialist, seventh dan Kodokan judo holder Kazuhiko Tokuno. Under his leadership, last year Turkmen judokas won many medals in the international arena, including at the 19th Summer Asian Games in Hangzhou (China), the world championship among cadets in Zagreb (Croatia), the Asian championship among cadets in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), II Games of the CIS countries in the Republic of Belarus and other representative competitions.
