[ad_1]
Former World Champion Saeid Mollaei didn’t participate within the latest European Championships in Sofia as a result of he didn’t characterize a European nation. After fleeing Iran, he was taken in by Mongolia. He would go on to win an Olympic silver medal (in Tokyo) for his adopted nation.
Nevertheless, you possibly can count on to see Mollaei preventing in subsequent yr’s Europeans as a result of efficient this month, he might be preventing for Azerbaijan.
Mollaei fought Fatiyev on the Olympics
In keeping with Mollaei, one in every of his largest goals was to combat below the Azerbaijani flag. So, when his contract with the Mongolian Judo Affiliation expired, he approached the Azerbaijan Judo Federation, which gladly accepted him.
It is well-known that Azerbaijan, which has many high judokas, is a bit missing within the U81kg division. Mollaei is anticipated to fill that hole. Apparently, within the Tokyo Video games, it was Mollaei who beat the Azerbaijan participant, Murad Fatiyev, within the preliminary rounds.
Reverse Kata Guruma
Mollaei is an thrilling participant with many unorthodox strategies however his most well-known one is one thing that has been described as a “reverse kata-guruma” which he does from a double-sleeve grip. He would drop beneath uke and as a substitute of driving ahead, he would flip backwards, taking uke with him.
It is a spectacular approach which initially confounded each his opponents and judo commentators alike. When he used this method within the 2018 World Championships, famed IJF commentator Neil Adams mistakenly referred to it as a sode-tsurikomi-goshi as a result of it did sort of resemble a drop sode (which additionally normally entails a double sleeve grip). It was solely afterward that individuals got here to comprehend this was a brand new sort of kata-guruma that Mollaei was utilizing.
Not the one double switcher
Mollaei has achieved one thing uncommon in altering nations twice however he isn’t the primary participant to have represented three nations. Vedat Albayrak of Turkey was often called Roman Moustopoulous when he represented Greece. However earlier than that he was Vano Revazishvili of Georgia.
[ad_2]
Source link
