Most people have the same routine when they’re leaving the house: They pat their pockets to make sure they’ve got their keys, wallet and phone. If you’re about to compete in a global sporting event, you should check to make sure you don’t have any of those things.
Portuguese judoka Anri Egutidze and Sweden’s Robin Pacek locked up in second-round action at the Baku Grand Slam in Azerbaijan last week and Egutidze’s phone slipped out of a pocket in his gi as soon as he bent over. Pacek was shocked and while Egutidze tried to play it cool by throwing his phone off the mat, the referee had no choice but to disqualify Egutidze.
Officially, Egutidze was DQ’d for a “Hansoku-make” or “grave infringement” involving a metallic object.
Obviously, at a big tournament like this, competitors are going to have a lot of downtime to sit around futzing around with their phones, so it makes sense that Egutidze would have his on him. But pay close attention to the beginning of the video. See how Egutidze and Pacek are waiting by the side of the mat for the previous fight to finish? You’d think Egutidze would have had plenty of time to realize that he was carrying contraband.
Egutidze entered the tournament ranked 16th in the world in the 81kg weight class, while Pacek was 49th and rose up to 43rd after a seventh-place finish.