The silver medal was won by Turkmen judoist Serdar Rahymov at the open European championship that ended today in Rome (Italy).
The two-day tournament brought together 381 athletes (220 men and 161 women) from 34 countries on five continents, who competed for 14 sets of medals in 7 men's and 7 women's weight categories.
The team of Turkmenistan was represented by 16 judoists (11 men and 5 women).
Serdar Rahymov achieved silver success in the weight category up to 66 kg, in which 37 judoists from 17 countries competed for medals. On the way to the podium, a 1st year student of the Turkmen State Institute of Architecture and Construction won four victories. And all iponom (clear victory).
In the first fight, our compatriot won against the 23-year-old silver medalist of the 2022 Pan American Open Julien Frascador from Canada. Then, in 51 seconds, he broke the resistance of 21-year-old winner of the 2022 European Cup in Riga, Anthony De Angelis from Latvia.
In the quarterfinals, Serdar Rahymov defeated the 26-year-old winner of the European Cup 2021 in Dubrovnik (Croatia) Alexander Short from Great Britain. In the semi-finals, he defeated the 24-year-old bronze medalist of the European Cup 2022 in Malaga and the current tournament in Rome, Luca Caggiano from Italy, in 18 seconds. And in the final, in a bitter struggle due to two scores, Vasari lost to the 21-year-old bronze medalist of the European Cup 2022 in Sarajevo Charlie Young from Great Britain and, as a result, was content with a silver medal.
This is the first major success of the 18-year-old first-class athlete from Turkmenistan in international competitions. Prior to this, the best results of S. Rahymov were 5 places at the Portuguese Grand Prix held in January 2023 and the V Islamic Solidarity Games, which took place in August 2022 in the Turkish city of Konya. It is noteworthy that at the Islamiada-2022 in the duel for bronze, Serdar lost to his compatriot Hekim Agamammedov due to one «vazari».
Serdar Rahymov started judo wrestling in Hojambaz (Lebap velayat) with his first coach Bayram Sherapov. Currently, he is improving his sportsmanship under the guidance of the head coach of the national team of Turkmenistan Gahryman Amandurdyyev.
This is not the first success of our compatriots at the open European judo championships. Last year, Hekim Agamammedov (weight category up to 66 kg) and Hakberdi Jumayev (up to 60 kg) won gold medals in the Austrian Oberwart, and this year the same judoists won bronze medals at tournaments of the same rank in Sofia (Bulgaria) and Warsaw, respectively. (Poland).
