TOKYO, August 30. /TASS/. Russian judoka Niyaz Ilyasov won silver on Friday at the 2019 World Judo Championships in men’s under-100 kilograms weight category.
The 24-year-old Russian fighter was defeated in the final bout by Jorge Fonseca, a 26-year-old judoka from Portugal.
The bronze medals went to Dutch judoka Michael Korrel and Aaron Wolf of Japan.
Speaking to journalists after the awarding ceremony, Ilyasov said he planned to be back in Tokyo to win an Olympic medal.
"A year ago at the World Judo Championship in Baku I took the bronze, this year I won the silver and I will be working harder to be back in Tokyo next year for an Olympic medal, while this bronze will become for me a part of my sports career," Ilyasov said.
"It’s a pity, since I had a dream of winning the gold both at the World Championship and at the Olympics," he continued. "I will have to gather now the complete set of medals of the world championships."
In the bout for the final, the Russian judoka defeated in the added time reigning Champion Cho Gu-ham of South Korea.
"It was him last year in Baku, who snatched the medal from me as he defeated me in the added time of the fight for the final and this time he was set for the gold again," Ilyasov said. "By the end of the fight with him I had no strength left and only heard the coach shouting ‘keep pressing, he is tired too’ and I was lucky a little bit as he stepped outside the mat. This was the most difficult fight for me at the tournament and I got very tired."
Ilyasov believes that after the fight against the South Korean judoka he did not have enough time to recover before facing Portugal’s Fonseca in the final.
"I was close in the final as I did my best to recover after the South Korean judoka," he said. "We have not met with Fonseca before. I proceeded well in the course of the fight and felt that he was getting tired by the end of our encounter. But everything is okay, we will meet again and perhaps very soon."
The 2019 World Judo Championships runs between August 25 and September 1 in Japan’s Tokyo. The capital of Japan is also scheduled to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games next summer.
