Saturday morning in Belgrade’s Stark Arena started with the well-known shout of HAJIME. The best women’s and men’s teams of the old continent, consisting of five competitors, are competing for the top spot at this year’s edition of the Champions League. It didn’t take long for us to notice some familiar faces in the stand, so the bronze medal winner from the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Slavko OBADOV, who, among other things, also has a Phd title, did not want to miss this competition. The spectacular European Club Championship is in Serbia.
I am very glad that you assessed it as a spectacle, we, as one of the founders of the judo association, are proud to see that all this is at the highest level, I think we are achieving a lot. There are a lot of competitors, a big audience, of course the results will come. This is a competition that is always very interesting and I hope that it will live on and be even better for years to come.
3-time Olympic winner, 11-time world champion, 6-time European champion, Teddy RINER is here. Here, that is something that attracts judo. Kudos to his club, the organizers and those who brought him here to Belgrade.
Obadov has a long career behind him, competitive, coaching, professor, mentor. There are few people who stay such a long streak related to judo, and among other things there are also a couple of books written. He told us briefly what judo means to him.
For me judo is everything. For me judo is life, something I discussed with my wife recently, I have been in the sport for 60 years. But I am very glad to hear from my colleagues from the former Yugoslavia, former colleagues from around the world. A little while ago I also met Alexandr JATSKEVITCH (LAT) and Franc OČKO (SLO), I am very glad to see familiar faces. As long as I can, for now on three legs (alluding with a laugh to the walking stick), I will devote myself to judo.
At the 1976 Olympic Games in Canada, Obadov competed in the U80kg category. Then he recorded four wins and one loss. In the fight for the bronze medal, he defeated the Spaniard Jose Luis DE FRUTOS. During the morning part of the competition, he was better than Detlef ULTSCH (GER), Adam ADACZYK (POL), Brian JACKS (GBR), but still, he lost in the semi-final against Valery DVOINIKOV (URS).
Author: Mario Krvavac