What is really impressive, aside from the judo itself, is the staggering level of professionalism being displayed by them both, perhaps indicative of the spirit of a whole new generation. Their team is full of calm maturity especially among the youngest of the seniors and they are collecting results at an astounding rate.
On day 4 in Budapest Timur Arbuzov won the -81 kg title, his first. On day 6 Matvey Kanikovskiy won gold at -100 kg, also his first. On day 7, Inal Tasoev won the heavyweight title for the second time. This men’s team is now riding a wave of momentum that is hard to ignore.
Timur and Matvey are happy to talk about their situation and it hasn’t always appeared to be an easy one. For example, how do they stay motivated during long periods at home?
Timur: “We have a huge co-operation among the judoka at home and there are many who are not ‘worse’ than us. We train with them and compete against them at home, always learning from each other. The learning is really helpful for us. If there is a chance to sometimes travel away from home, training with different judoka, feeling something different, then I like to take that too.”
Matvey: “We have a lot of judoka in each category at home and so we compete with each other and study each other’s judo to keep motivated. I prefer to stay at home with my team as the level is really high.”
You seem to be completely focused; how did you reach this focused state at such a young age?
Timur: “I don’t think I’m so young to have this focus because there are any others who were winning from very young, like Teddy, Iliadis, Hifumi. They were our age and they took it seriously too. From the beginning, even when we were first beginning to compete, it was all for the gold medal, everything for this.”
What is unique in your training that you think makes the difference between you and the rest?
Timur: “From when I was little my father was helping me stretch everyday. Now Matvey spends like 90 mins per day on stretching but because I did so much when I was young, he is still not close to me yet! Maybe we do 7 hours training in total per day, it depends where we are. At a camp it’s 2-3 days with two sessions per day and then one of rest and repeat.”
Matvey: "We have everything that we need in our team, like coaches, food, rest, everything. There is a concurrence of many small things that brings the best result.”
We know that both of them started judo when they were little but why judo instead of football or basketball or computer games? Matvey answers with a wry smile, “Now it’s too late to change!”
There is no doubt that their formula is working and the years ahead for both Arbuzov and Kanikovskiy could be very exciting indeed. It’s mind-blowing to think that even with such outstanding ability on show in Budapest, there is still time to grow and improve. Matvey said exactly that when asked for his favourite thing about the sport, “Unstoppable progress!”
Timur Arbuzov and Matvey Kanikovskiy are new world champions who still see everything ahead of them and they are ready to give everything possible to get the most out of their lives in judo. Their professionalism is key to their current and future success and as role models, they are a perfect illustration of what the elite end of the judo spectrum should be.