By Mitch Abramson
Sadykov won the judo match, but he was still smarting from his injuries when he faced Ramon DeJesus, who finished winless overall in the silver medal round of the 60 KG (132-pound) weight class in the Empire State Games at Binghamton University July 30.Ignoring the shooting pain in his jaw, Sadykov, 18, won by waza ari – or a half point – on a throw maneuver that earned him his second silver in two years and inched him closer to receiving an invitation to tournaments that will give him the chance to win a black belt from “fighting whomever they put in front of you,” he said. “To be honest, I didn't think I would do it this year,” said Sadykov, who finished 4-1 in competition and is originally from Uzbekistan. “The opponents that I went against were so much more experienced than me and older, and I thought I was going to have trouble. In these types of tournaments, normally I fight against junior competitors, but here you're fighting against people of all ages. It makes it tough.”One doesn't have to look far to find where Sadykov gets his toughness from. Flushing resident Arkadiy Aronov, 42, is a lumbering package of strength who has been Sadykov's judo instructor since he was 12. Aronov, a former coach of the Uzbekistan judo national team, competed this year even though he will have surgery soon to repair an old knee injury that has kept him out of competition for the past 12 years. “The team from New York City needed a medal, so I competed,” he said. “I don't care about my knee in competition. I only care about my team.”That was clear in his semifinal match against the Central Region's William Myers in the open weight division when he twisted his knee on a throw maneuver, threatening to sideline him for his bronze medal match and causing him to limp back to his seat. Despite the injury, Aronov, nearly crippled with pain, threw Alexei Churilov to win the bronze.”He is very passionate about judo,” Sadykov said. “He is very strict and he stresses that you stay focused and use your technique at all times. He makes us run and everything we do is according to plan.”The strategy for Sadykov, who won a bronze in the 2002 Junior Olympics and works in a Fresh Meadows tanning salon, is to attend Hunter College in the fall and study to become a doctor. He would have won a gold medal at the Empires but lost to eventual gold medallist Hector Moscoso by a full point, or a sode-tsuri-komi-goshi, in the first round on a drop-style shoulder throw.In his final match, Moscoso lost to Jason Brodsky, whom Sadykov defeated in his second match. Because Sadykov's early defeat was by a full point and Moscoso's was by a half, Moscoso took the gold.Reach reporter Mitch Abramson by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
