Habib Baduy He made history for Argentine, Rio Negro and Rio Cuartense judo. The judoka born in Cinco Saltos, who has lived in our city for several years, won the bronze medal in the -100kg category. of the Judo World Masters which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.
The representative of the Argentine National Team competed in Zone D of his category. There, he faced and defeated the American Serdar Piriyev in the quarterfinals (an instance to which he qualified directly). In the semifinals, he lost to the 2023 world champion, Brazilian Milton Miranda. In the match for third place, he took the bronze in a spectacular fight where he defeated the Brazilian Guilherme De Carvalho.
From Las Vegas, Baduy spoke with Al Toque Sports about what this World Cup was like: “The balance is very good. I am very happy, it is the first medal I have in a World Cup. My category is M1, it is very professional, with people from 30 to 34 years old, which is the best age for athletes. The truth is that it is not easy to get a medal in this category and I was given. I fought the American and beat him in 20 seconds. In the semifinals I played against the world champion in 2023, I had a bad decision there and the Brazilian took advantage of it, but I felt like I could have won it. Third place was against another Brazilian, we tied, we went to golden score which is a golden point and I was able to beat him in a 7 minute fight”.
The judoka spoke about the time he spent without competing in recent years and this return with victory in the National and bronze in the World Cup: “On the tatami I felt super comfortable, I had a lot of experience. I thoroughly enjoyed this process. It was good for me to leave for a few years because I came back more mature and much more creative to fight. I have gone to other World Cups but now I realized that I had never been prepared for an event like this. Next year I’m going to Tokyo to see if I can win gold”.
Baduy was convinced of his chances of finishing on the podium in Las Vegas: “I visualized the medal the moment I was summoned to the World Cup. I had to win the National, once I qualified I saw that I was up for a medal, I came looking for it and it was given to me. I was satisfied because it had been a long time since I had fought internationally. It is the first World Cup medal in the history of my Cinco Saltos club, which has 60 years of history in so many generations of competitors it has had. In the Argentine Central from Río Cuarto, everyone is also very happy”.
Accompanied by friends and his father, Baduy shared this success with his family in the so-called “world entertainment capital”: “Representing Argentina is always good, we take it with a lot of passion. They came with many friends from Cinco Saltos, I felt like a local, it was crazy how they encouraged me, especially in the fight for bronze, which was very even. I knew I was going to win it because I had a lot of motivation to get the medal.”, he concluded.
Photos: Kindness Habib Baduy
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