Ahmad Yusifov

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Ahmad Yusifov

Yusifov in October 2026
Personal information
Native name	Əhməd Elşad oğlu Yusifov
Nickname(s)
Born	31 May 1999 (1999-05-31) (age 27) Goychay, Azerbaijan
Died	Not recognized as a date. Years must have 4 digits (use leading zeros for years < 1000). (aged )
Occupation	Judoka
Website
Sport
Country	Azerbaijan
Sport	Judo
Weight class	‍–‍60 kg
Club	Lokomotiv
Coached by	Nijat Shikhalizada
Achievements and titles
World finals	(2026)
Regional finals	(2025, 2026)
Profile at external databases
IJF	{{#statements:P4559}}
JudoInside.com	{{#statements:P2767}}
Updated on 10 October 2026.

Ahmad Elshad oghlu Yusifov (; born 31 May 1999) is an Azerbaijani judoka who competes in the men's 60 kg division. He won the world title at the 2026 World Judo Championships in Baku, becoming the fourth Azerbaijani senior world champion in judo and the first in the 60 kg category. He is also a two-time bronze medallist at the European Judo Championships (2025 and 2026), the winner of the 2026 Tashkent Grand Slam and a silver medallist at the 2019 World Junior Championships.

Early life

Yusifov was born on 31 May 1999 in Goychay and has lived in Baku since the age of six. He took up judo at the age of eight at the Lokomotiv sports club and later enrolled at the Republican Olympic Sports Lyceum, where he trained under Nagi Babayev. He subsequently trained under Nijat Shikhalizada, whom he has credited with sparking his interest in elite sport.

Career

Cadet and junior

Competing in the 30 kg and 34 kg categories, Yusifov won the Baku city championships. In 2015, competing at 55 kg, he reached the final of the Azerbaijani national championships, which earned him a place on the national team. In March 2016 he won the Cadet European Cup in Antalya, Turkey, and repeated the result a month later in Teplice, Czech Republic, before taking bronze at the Cadet European Cup in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, in May. In July 2016 he won the gold medal at the European Cadet Championships in Vantaa, Finland. He finished the 2016 season as the world's top-ranked cadet in his weight category.

In 2019 Yusifov won the Junior European Cups in Lignano (April) and Berlin (July). In September 2019 he took bronze at the European Junior Championships in Vantaa, and in October he won the silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Senior

In February 2022 Yusifov won the European Open in Warsaw. He competed at the 2022 European Judo Championships in Sofia, where he lost in the round of 16 to Jorre Verstraeten of Belgium. In March 2023 he won bronze at the Tashkent Grand Slam, and in August of that year he took silver at the Zagreb Grand Prix. He won silver again at the 2024 Zagreb Grand Prix and bronze at the 2025 Baku Grand Slam. In November 2024 he was the silver medallist at the Azerbaijani national championships.

In April 2025 Yusifov won the bronze medal at the 2025 European Judo Championships in Podgorica, defeating the 2023 world champion and defending European champion Francisco Garrigós of Spain in the bronze-medal contest. At the 2025 World Judo Championships in Budapest in June he was eliminated in his opening contest by Ryuju Nagayama of Japan.

In October 2025 Yusifov won silver at the Lima Grand Prix and, the same month, bronze at the Guadalajara Grand Prix, beating Enzo Jean of France in the bronze-medal contest.

In February 2026 Yusifov won his first Grand Slam title in Tashkent, defeating compatriot Balabay Aghayev in an all-Azerbaijani final. At the 2026 European Judo Championships in Tbilisi on 16 April 2026, he lost in the quarter-finals to Luka Mkheidze of France but came through the repechage and defeated Aghayev in the bronze-medal contest to claim his second consecutive European bronze. He went on to finish fifth at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam in June and took bronze at the Qingdao Grand Prix later that month.

2026 World Championships

On 4 October 2026, the opening day of the 2026 World Judo Championships at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Yusifov, seeded fifth, won the men's 60 kg title. He defeated Tüvshintöriin Tümenjargal of Mongolia in the round of 32, Harsh Singh of India in the round of 16, Ayub Bliev of Russia in the quarter-finals and Yang Yung-wei of Chinese Taipei in the semi-finals. In the final against Sherzod Davlatov of Kazakhstan, neither finalist having previously won a senior world or Olympic medal, Yusifov conceded a waza-ari to a ko-uchi-gari early in the contest, but countered a lifting attempt by Davlatov for a waza-ari of his own and then secured a hold-down (osaekomi) for a second waza-ari to win the gold medal.

The victory made Yusifov the fourth Azerbaijani judoka to win a senior world title and the first to do so in the 60 kg category; it was also Azerbaijan's first medal of the home championships. Speaking after the final, Yusifov said that the contest had not begun as he expected but that he had regained his composure and applied his own technique, and that his next goal was an Olympic title. On 5 October, at the opening ceremony of the championships, President Ilham Aliyev met Yusifov and congratulated him on the title. Following the victory he was ranked fifth in the IJF world ranking for the 60 kg category.

External links

• Template:International Judo Federation
• Ahmad Yusifov at JudoInside.com

Template:WC Judo Men's Extra Lightweight

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