Turkmen judoka Serdar Rahymov won the gold medal at the Junior European Cup that started in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). This remarkable success was achieved by a 1st year student of the Turkmen State Institute of Architecture and Construction in the weight category up to 66 kg, in which 27 athletes from 13 countries competed for the title of the strongest.

In the first fight, our compatriot, due to the Vasari score, won against the 19-year-old bronze medalist of the European Cups in 2019 and 2020 Valerio Ferro (Italy). He then scored a clean win over 19-year-old European Junior Cup 2022 bronze medalist Krzysztof Klimkiewicz (Poland).

In the quarter-final, Serdar Rahymov, thanks to the «Vasari», was stronger than Marko Lojanicic (Serbia). In the semi-finals, he defeated the bronze medalist of this tournament Yuval Odin Levenshtein (Israel) in 36 seconds with an ipon (clear victory), and in the final in 2 minutes 46 seconds he also defeated Flavius Lungu (Romania) with an ipon.

This is the second major success of the 18-year-old first-class athlete from Turkmenistan in international competitions this month. A week ago, he won silver at the European Open in Rome (Italy), losing only in the final due to two «Vasari» scores to 21-year-old bronze medalist of the European Cup 2022 in Sarajevo Charlie Young from Great Britain.

Serdar Rahymov started judo wrestling in Hojambaz (Lebap velayat) with his first coach Bayram Sherapov. Currently, he is improving his sportsmanship under the guidance of the head coach of the national team of Turkmenistan Gahryman Amandurdyyev.

The two-day European Junior Cup 2023 in Sarajevo brought together 268 athletes (166 men and 102 women) from 18 countries on four continents who compete for 14 sets of medals in 7 men's and 7 women's weight categories.

The team of Turkmenistan in this tournament is represented by 13 judokas (10 men and 3 women).