Practice partners make friendship for judoka

NANJING -- When Russia's rising judo star Mikhail Igolnikov came to the training venue Sunday in the Heavy Category Sports School in Nanjing, he had a problem -- he had no one to practice with.

As each country could qualify just one male and one female entry for the judo event at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, there is no other male player from his home country.

Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games

Igolnikov at first warmed up alone but then realized that other players were in the same situation. He eventually teamed up with Nemanja Majdov of Serbia and worked out with him. The two judoka felt they were on the same page right away.

"I've seen him before, but he only recently moved up to the -81kg and so we never competed against each other," 17-year-old Igolnikov said.

"Now we are rivals in competition, but we help each other in training. It is good to train with judoka from other countries."

"On the tatami we are adversaries, but off the tatami we are friends," Majdov, who celebrated his 18th birthday on August 10, added.

Their sport has helped them to overcome the language barrier.

"He does not speak much English, and I do not know Russian, but somehow with judo we still understand each other. We are like brothers," Majdov said, laughing.

While Igolnikov has excellent training conditions and a full support system in Russia, Majdov, who was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and still lives in Sarajevo, elected to represent Serbia two years ago, claiming he "did not get any support from Bosnia."

Igolnikov was surprised to learn that his new friend does not have regular training camps with the national team. "I have four training partners in my club and I am coached by my father Liubisa, " Majdov said.

Igolnikov, who won a gold medal at the world cadet championships in 2013, and is a three-time European cadet champion,

has other high-level national team members in his club and takes part in several training camps during the year.

"I invite you (Majdov) to come to my club and to our training camps to train with us," he said to Majdov and the Serbian accepted happily. "Hopefully there will be time in the fall after the world junior championship."

The men's -81kg judo competition takes place on Monday, August 18, at the Longjiang Gymnasium.