It is very rare that top judokas fail to make weight. Surprisingly, this has happened to Olympic, World and European Champion Hidayat Heydarov (AZE) not once but twice so far, this year.
Heydarov was not able to compete in the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam in June because he was overweight. Earlier this year, in February, he failed to make weight for the Tashkent Grand Slam, and therefore had to miss that event.
Normally, when an athlete fails to make weight, they will be sanctioned by their judo federation. According to Rashad Rasullu, president of the Azerbaijan Judo Federation, Heydarov has indeed been punished but Rasullu did not elaborate.
“In both cases, Hidayat Heydarov was punished, but we do not want to disclose the details,” Rasullu said.
Typically, when a player fails to make weight, their federation would bar them from competing for a certain time frame. This obviously was not the case with Heydarov, who competed in the Qingdao Grand Prix, which was also in June.
He competed in Qingdao at the higher weight class of -81kg and won a bronze medal.
Lest anyone think he might be moving up a weight, the Azerbaijan Judo Federation has confirmed that Heydarov will compete in his usual -73kg category at the World Judo Championships, which will be held in Baku in October.
According to Rasullu, the federation is aware of the reason why Heydarov was unable to make weight. He did not provide details about the reason but said that the federation is working with Heydarov to overcome this issue.
Despite these two incidents, the federation is still firmly behind Heydarov. “We have no doubt that Hidayat will become a two-time Olympic champion,” Rasullu said.
