Turkmen Judo Athletes Set to Compete at the World Championships in Baku
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Turkmen athletes will take part in the 39th World Judo Championships, which began today in Azerbaijan at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku. The capital of Azerbaijan is hosting the planet’s premier judo tournament for the second time, following the 2018 edition.
Turkmen athletes will take part in the 39th World Judo Championships, which began today in Azerbaijan at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku. The capital of Azerbaijan is hosting the planet’s premier judo tournament for the second time, following the 2018 edition.
The current World Championships are the first in the new Olympic cycle leading up to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and will be a key stage in shaping the International Judo Federation (IJF) world ranking. The large-scale sporting event features 622 athletes from 93 countries representing six continents: 335 athletes in the men’s competition and 287 in the women’s.
According to IJF regulations, only athletes ranked among the top 100 of the current World Ranking List (WRL) in their respective weight categories are eligible to compete, making the tournament a contest among the strongest judokas on the planet.
The prize pool for the individual competition is €800,000. The winner receives €20,800, while their coach receives €5,200; the runner-up receives €12,000 and their coach €3,000; and the bronze medalist receives €6,400, with €1,600 going to their coach.
The competitions are traditionally held in the following weight categories: up to 60, 66, 73, 81, 90, 100 and over 100 kg for men, and up to 48, 52, 57, 63, 70, 78 and over 78 kg for women.
Turkmenistan’s national team at the 2026 World Championships is represented by four judokas—three men and one woman—who have successfully established themselves among the top 100 in the international rankings.
According to the official entry list on IJF.org, the team consists of Serdar Rahimov (up to 66 kg, 48 competitors in the draw), Meylis Shamuradov (up to 73 kg, 50 competitors), Baymyrat Majanov (up to 100 kg, 56 competitors), and Maysa Pardayeva (up to 57 kg, 42 competitors).
The first member of the Turkmen team to step onto the tatami in Baku on October 5 will be 22-year-old Serdar Rahimov, a participant in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and winner of the 2024 Grand Slam tournament in Dushanbe. He is currently ranked 73rd in the world with 606 points. In his opening bout, he will face 28-year-old Spaniard Adrián Nieto Chinarro, the No. 19-ranked judoka in the IJF world rankings with 1,912 points. The Spaniard has more than 200 official bouts to his name, as well as bronze medals from the Grand Prix Upper Austria (March 2026), the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam (November 2025), and the Guadalajara Grand Prix (October 2025). In April 2026, at the European Championships, Adrián Nieto Chinarro caused a major upset by defeating Denis Vieru of Moldova, a decorated judoka and bronze medalist at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Thus, Rahimov faces an extremely demanding tactical battle against an experienced and tenacious fighter who is highly adept at capitalizing on opponents’ mistakes and executing ippon throws. However, Serdar’s advantages in speed and youth could prove decisive in regulation time or in Golden Score.
On the following day of competition, Tuesday, October 6, 2024 Olympic Games participant and bronze medalist at the 19th Asian Games in 2023 and the 2024 Antalya Grand Slam, Maysa Pardayeva, will step onto the tatami. She is ranked 20th in the world in the up-to-57 kg category with 1,902 points. Her opponent will be 24-year-old Kim Juhee of the Republic of Korea, ranked 75th with 512 points. She is the 2017 Cadet World Champion, a bronze medalist at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, a silver medalist at the 2025 World Mixed Team Championships, and a fifth-place finisher at the 2025 Qazaqstan Barysy Grand Slam and the 2025 Qingdao Grand Prix.
The athletes have already met at the 2024 Antalya Grand Slam, where Pardayeva won by virtue of a waza-ari score. Maysa enters the bout as the favorite after recently winning gold at the 2026 Qingdao Grand Prix; however, the disciplined and resilient Korean school of judo promises anything but an easy contest.
Meylis Shamuradov, ranked 88th in the world in the up-to-73 kg category with 478 points, will also begin his campaign on October 6. In the first round, he will face 33-year-old experienced Czech representative Chusniddin Karimov, the No. 25-ranked judoka in the IJF rankings with 1,637 points.
Karimov, who is of Azerbaijani origin and represents the Prague-based Sokol Praha Vršovice club, is enjoying a second youth: in recent seasons, he has won silver at the 2025 Guadalajara Grand Prix, bronze at the 2025 Grand Prix Upper Austria and the 2025 Lima Grand Prix, and finished seventh at the 2026 Hungary Grand Slam in September.
Chusniddin Karimov represents a powerful European school of judo, with excellent ground-fighting technique and a tenacious style in the standing position. Therefore, the keys to victory for Shamuradov will be high speed, attacking activity from the very first seconds, and an attempt to tire out his opponent without allowing the bout to go into Golden Score.
The final Turkmen judoka to compete will be Baymyrat Majanov on Friday, October 9, competing in the up-to-100 kg category. He has been handed the most difficult draw—a bout on the home tatami against local favorite and the tournament’s biggest superstar, 28-year-old Azerbaijani Zelym Kotsoiev.
Kotsoiev is the reigning 2024 Paris Olympic champion, the 2024 Abu Dhabi World Champion, a three-time World Championships bronze medalist (2022, 2023, 2025), and a former world No. 1. He currently occupies 11th place in the rankings with 3,020 points and has bronze medals from the 2026 Tashkent Grand Slam and the 2026 Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam. Standing 190 cm tall, Zelym Kotsoiev possesses exceptional flexibility, long leverage, phenomenal endurance, and powerful support from the home crowd. However, his status as the favorite means that Majanov can fight without excessive psychological pressure in the biggest challenge of his career.
The World Judo Championships will conclude with the mixed team competition on October 11.