A new bright page has been written in the history of Turkmen sports. And it was written by 20-year-old judoka Serdar Rakhimov, who won the first gold medal for Turkmenistan at these prestigious competitions at the IJF World Tour "Grand Slam" tournament ("Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024") that started in the capital of Tajikistan.
The Grand Slam is a series of international judo tournaments that are inferior in status only to the World Championships and the Olympic Games, and are held throughout the year in various cities around the world.
The three-day tournament in Dushanbe with a prize fund of €154,000 brought together 390 athletes (204 men and 186 women) from 65 countries of five continents, who are competing for 14 sets of medals in 7 men's and 7 women's weight categories. Among its participants are many renowned judokas, including a number of current Olympic and World Champions and medalists.
Turkmenistan is represented by 8 judokas - 5 men and 3 women - at the "Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024" qualifying tournament for the 2024 Olympics. And it is very gratifying that already on the first day of the competition, our compatriot rose to the top of the podium.
Serdar Rakhimov became the winner in the weight category up to 66 kg, in which 28 judokas from 22 countries competed for medals. On the way to this success, the 2nd year student of the Turkmen State Institute of Architecture and Construction won five victories.
In the first round, Serdar won against the Cadet Asian Cup 2019 silver medalist Byambasuren Ulziibayar (Mongolia), in the second bout he prevailed over the Pan American Games 2023 vice-champion Julien Frascadore (Canada).
In the quarterfinals, our compatriot scored a clean "ippon" victory over the Baku Grand Slam 2022 silver medalist Mulorajab Khalifaev (Tajikistan), and in the semifinals he defeated the Junior Asian Cup 2019 winner Bobur Vadjiev (Uzbekistan).
In the final, S. Rakhimov faced the 26-year-old Tajik judoka Obid Dzhebov, who had previously won the Dushanbe Grand Prix 2023 and twice became a medalist at the Grand Slam tournaments in 2023 in Ulaanbaatar (silver) and in 2024 in Antalya (bronze).
Prior to this bout, the opponents had met on the tatami twice before. At the Grand Prix Portugal 2023, Serdar won against O. Dzhebov in the third round with a "waza-ari" score, and two weeks earlier at the Asian Championships in Hong Kong, he lost to him with one "waza-ari" in the first round of the competition.
In the fight for the "gold", the winner of which received 1000 rating points in the fight for the Olympic quota, Serdar Rakhimov had to feel not only the experience of a formidable opponent, but also the great pressure from the local spectators who powerfully supported their athlete. However, our judoka honorably withstood the test.
The main 4 minutes of the fight, in which both athletes received two warnings, ended without scores. As a result, the winner had to be determined in the additional "Golden Score" bout, in the second minute of which the representative of Tajikistan, for passivity, received the third and final warning ("hansoku-make") and had to be content with the silver medal.
The bronze medalists in this weight category were Mulorajab Khalifaev from Tajikistan and Ivan Chernykh from Russia, who competed under the flag of the International Judo Federation (IJF) and won the Tbilisi Grand Slam 2024. And the winner of the "Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024" was Serdar Rakhimov (Turkmenistan).
In addition, the medalists were awarded cash prizes: for 1st place - 5,000 euros (of which 1,000 euros - to the athlete's coach), for 2nd place - 3,000 euros (of which 600 euros - to the coach), for 3rd place - 1,500 euros (300 of them - to the coach).
At the awards ceremony, in the company of renowned judokas, the gold medal was presented to the Turkmen athlete by the CEO of Tcell, Ozodkhon Davlatshoev, after which the State Flag of our country was raised in honor of our athlete's victory under the vaults of the Sports Palace in Dushanbe, and the anthem of Turkmenistan was played for the first time at such a high-level competition.
Previously, Turkmen judokas had never reached the top of the podium at Grand Slam competitions, the winners and medalists of which receive rating points for participation in the World Championships and the Olympic Games. Prior to this, the best results of our compatriots at such tournaments were the bronze medals of Khekim Agammamedov in the up to 66 kg weight category at the "Tokyo Grand Slam 2023" in Japan and Maisa Pardaeva in the up to 57 kg weight at the "Antalya Grand Slam 2024" in Turkey.
Serdar Rakhimov first made himself known in 2023, when he won silver at the Rome European Open, then won gold at the Sarajevo Junior European Cup and became a silver medalist at the Tashkent Junior Asian Cup. This year, he won silver medals at the Warsaw European Open (Poland) and the Riga European Cup (Latvia). And now he became the winner of the Grand Slam for the first time.
Serdar Rakhimov started practicing judo in Khojambaz (Lebap velayat) under his first coach Bayram Sherapov. Currently, he is honing his sporting skills in the national team of Turkmenistan, which since 2023 is led by Japanese specialist Kazuhiko Tokuno, the holder of the seventh Dan of Kodokan Judo. In 2011, the International Judo Federation (IJF) recognized him as the best coach among women's team mentors. Among K. Tokuno's students are many medalists of World Championships, Olympic Games, World University Games, Asian Championships, Asian Games and other major international tournaments.
And for the second year now, Kazuhiko Tokuno has been working fruitfully in Turkmenistan, bringing world fame to the national judo school. This is evidenced by a number of major successes that Turkmen athletes have achieved under the guidance of the experienced judo master from Japan at the XIX Asian Games in Hangzhou (China), the Zagreb World Championships Cadets (Croatia), the Asian Cadet Championships in Tashkent (Uzbekistan), the II CIS Games in the Republic of Belarus, and now have won the highest award at the prestigious IJF World Tour "Grand Slam" tournament.
Thanks to the gold success at the "Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024", Serdar Rakhimov, who was previously in the top 100 best judokas in the world in the up to 66 kg weight category with 1224 points, improved his rating by 1000 points and made a significant bid for participation in the Olympic Games 2024 in France.
It is noteworthy that if earlier only a few athletes from the Turkmen judo team claimed Olympic quotas, now the competition has increased significantly. So, in addition to Serdar Rakhimov, Khekim Agammamedov, who has a continental quota, is also claiming a spot in the up to 66 kg weight category for the Olympic Paris. Since a country can only enter one judoka in a weight category at the Olympics, it will be known who will become the lucky owner of the Olympic license based on the results of the last two qualifying tournaments - the Grand Slam in Astana (May 10-12) and the World Championships in Abu Dhabi (May 19-23).
Earlier, another Olympic quota in the Turkmen judo team was won in the up to 57 kg weight category by Maisa Pardaeva, who was close to winning a bronze medal at the "Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024". In the first round, she won in the additional "Golden Score" bout against Aseli Toprak (Azerbaijan), and in the second, she scored two "waza-ari" points to cleanly defeat Arleta Podolak (Poland), the bronze medalist of the "Tashkent Grand Slam 2024".
After that, the 19-year-old 1st year student of the Turkmen State Institute of Physical Culture and Sports lost in the quarterfinals to the 27-year-old winner of the "Dushanbe Grand Slam 2024", Jessica Klimkeit (Canada), but in the consolation tournament she defeated Pauline Starke (Germany), the bronze medalist of the "Tashkent Grand Slam 2024", and earned the right to fight for 3rd place.
In the bronze medal match, our bronze medalist of the XIX Asian Games faced the 20-year-old reigning European and World Junior Champion Veronica Toniolo (Italy).
At first, everything was going well for the Turkmen judoka. Maisa confidently controlled the course of the match, during which the Italian was given a warning for passivity. But it didn't come to any effective actions, and it seemed that the fate of the winner would be decided in an additional "Golden Score" bout. However, 3-4 seconds before the end of the main time, Veronica Toniolo performed a throw for a "waza-ari" score and snatched the victory.
As a result, Maisa Pardaeva took 5th place, earning another 360 points for her rating.
The Olympic Games in Paris will be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024.
