The World Judo Championship, which has become the main test for athletes before the Olympic Games, has ended in Budapest.

Usually, the planetary championship in this type of martial arts takes place in late summer or autumn, and in the Olympic year it is not organized at all, but the coronavirus pandemic has made its own adjustments to the calendar, and the tournament took place just a month and a half before the Games in Tokyo.  

For the Russian national team, this world championship turned out to be the most successful in the last ten years.

Domestic judokas are used to winning victories at the Olympic Games, but at the second most important start, luck is quite rare for them.

In 2011, Tagir Khaibulaev was the last of the Russians to become the world champion, and since then no one has repeated his achievements.

The losing streak on the very first day was interrupted by Iago Abuladze.

For a young athlete competing in the weight category up to 60 kg, Budapest can be considered a happy place.

There he won his first Grand Slam tournament, after which he won two medals in the European Championships and quickly broke into the number of the best lightweights in the world.

23-year-old Abuladze began his campaign for the gold medal with two confident victories with Ippon.

In the quarterfinals, the Russian met with the Bulgarian vice-champion of Europe Yanislav Gerchev, whom he lost in the last two fights.

This time, an athlete from the Moscow region Shchelkov took revenge on the "waza-ari".

Then Abuladze was waiting for two contenders from Kazakhstan in a row - Magzhan Shamshadin and Gusman Kyrgyzbaev.

He defeated one by holding, and the other by throwing over the thigh and a back footboard.

Abuladze became the first Russian judoka to win gold in the lightest weight in 26 years.

Nikolai Ozhegin was the last to achieve this.

The judoka dedicated his historic victory in many respects to the family of his deceased friend.

“I am very glad, emotions overwhelm me!

I really hope that my teammates - our strong Russian national team - will support my initiative and in the following days, inspired, will achieve places on the podium in their categories.

I dedicate the gold of Budapest to the family of my very good friend, who, unfortunately, recently left us.

He always supported me, ”Abuladze said.

The athlete's wish was fulfilled the very next day by Yakub Shamilov, performing in weight up to 66 kg.

During his long career, he has not yet managed to climb the podium in official championships, but in Budapest, luck finally smiled at him.

The 30-year-old judoka confidently reached the quarterfinals, having completed three bouts in a row ahead of schedule.

There Shamilov lost to the world ranking leader Manuel Lombardo from Italy, but continued to perform in the consolation tournament.

The Russian defeated the Belarusian Dmitry Minkov with another “Ippon” and went out to fight for the bronze with the Azerbaijani Oran Safarov.

The two-time world championship medalist resisted Shamilov for a long time, but in extra time the Russian judoka was the first to make a productive action and won a medal.

The next time the piggy bank of the national team was replenished on the last day of individual competitions, when heavyweights entered the tatami.

Russia had its favorite Tamerlan Bashaev in the weight over 100 kg, but his first fights were very difficult.

He fought twice in extra time and, moreover, suffered a minor injury, due to which in subsequent fights he performed with a bandaged leg.

Nevertheless, Bashaev made it to the final - none of the Russians have been able to do this at the world championships for 14 years. In the decisive bout, the European champion met with the Japanese Kokoro Kageura and at the last minute missed a move rated for "waza-ari". Bashaev tried to respond in kind and practically equalized the score, but at the last moment the representative of the homeland of judo dodged the Russian and won.

“I am glad that I have achieved a world award, it is a shame that it is not a gold one. I had every chance of becoming a winner. Now I have mixed emotions: on the one hand, it's nice to become a world medalist for the first time in my career, and on the other hand, it's a shame, because I went to Hungary to become a champion. In the first attack today, I injured my ankle. I had to endure, take the pain "into a fist" and do everything possible to show the best result that I am capable of. The injury did not allow me to fully perform crown throws from my knees. Once I took a chance, on adrenaline, but ... Yes, and on the ground in the final with Kageura I did not finish, I didn’t hold "osaekomi", - Bashaev commented on his fight.

The World Championship in Budapest ended with a mixed team tournament - soon this format of competition will debut at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Russian national team consisted mainly of judokas who did not participate in individual competitions.

In the course of the tournament, they managed to reach the semifinals, in which they were defeated by a clean sheet against a powerful team from Japan.

An attempt to win at least a bronze, as was the case at the last two world championships, did not succeed - the Russians again lost to the Brazilians.

In the overall medal standings, the Russian national team took fifth place with one gold, one silver and one bronze.

The team has not climbed so high since the 2011 World Cup in which the last victory was won.