NASHIK: The Maharashtra Judo Association has organised the Maharashtra State Judo Championship of 48th Senior Group in Pune from 17th to 20th February, 2022. In this competition, Ajinkya Vaidya, an international player from Nashik, played his match and defeated Avadhun Patil of Kolhapur in the 66 kg weight category and carved his name on the gold medal.
In the men’s under 66 kg category, Ajinkya Vaidya of Nashik defeated Avadhut Patil of Kolhapur by a margin of 1 point in just 35 seconds to clinch the gold medal. Ajinkya Vaidya had won a silver medal in the junior category at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Jaipur. On the occasion of the inauguration of this competition, the founder of World Judo, Dr Jigoro Kono and pioneer of Indian Judo Raghunath Khaniwale were present.
Ajinkya has been practicing regularly at the District Sports Complex for the last 10 years and is receiving regular guidance from senior Judo coaches – organiser Ratnakar Patwardhan, Ravindra Metkar, Sai coaches Vijay Patil, Swapnil Shinde, Yogesh Shinde and others. They have expressed confidence that Ajinkya will give a gold medal to Maharashtra by performing well in the national competition in the same way.
State General Secretary Shailesh Tilak, Technical Committee Chairman Ravi Patil, Technical Committee Secretary Datta Aphale, Competition Inspector Anil Sapkal and Competition Director Deepak Hole were present at the occasion.
