GJAKOVA Akil

World Championships

Year	Location	-73 kg
2021	Budapest, HUN	17
2019	Tokyo, JPN	17
2018	Baku, AZE	9
2017	Budapest, HUN	33

European Championships

Year	Location	-73 kg
2021	Lisbon, POR	1
2019	Minsk, BLR	9
2018	Tel Aviv, ISR	7
2017	Warsaw, POL	9

World Masters

Year	Location	-73 kg
2021	Doha, QAT	7
2019	Qingdao, CHN	5
2018	Guangzhou, CHN	7

Grand Slam - Tally of rank achieved per season and event since 2017

Year	Event	1st	2nd	3rd	5th	7th	9th	16th	17th	30th-33rd
2021	-73 kg	-	-	-	1x	-	1x	-	-	-
2020	-73 kg	-	-	-	-	-	1x	-	-	-
2019	-73 kg	-	-	-	2x	-	1x	-	-	-
2018	-73 kg	1x	1x	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2017	-73 kg	-	-	-	-	-	1x	-	-	-

Grand Prix - Tally of rank achieved per season and event since 2017

Year	Event	1st	2nd	3rd	5th	7th	8th	9th	10th	15th-33rd
2019	-73 kg	1x	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2018	-73 kg	1x	2x	-	-	1x	-	-	-	-
2017	-73 kg	-	-	-	2x	-	-	-	-	-

Grand Slam, Grand Prix & World Cup - Ten best performances since 2017

Rank	Year	Event	Competition	Location
1	2019	-73 kg	Grand Prix	Budapest, HUN
1	2018	-73 kg	Grand Slam	Paris, FRA
1	2018	-73 kg	Grand Prix	Zagreb, CRO
2	2018	-73 kg	Grand Slam	Abu Dhabi, UAE
2	2018	-73 kg	Grand Prix	The Hague, NED
2	2018	-73 kg	Grand Prix	Tunis, TUN
5	2021	-73 kg	Grand Slam	Tbilisi, GEO
5	2019	-73 kg	Grand Slam	Baku, AZE
5	2019	-73 kg	Grand Slam	Paris, FRA
5	2017	-73 kg	Grand Prix	The Hague, NED
5	2017	-73 kg	Grand Prix	Antalya, TUR

Athlete

Albanian, English

Ippon Judo Club [Pec, KOS]

Driton Kuka [club, national], KOS

His older sister Nora Gjakova has represented Albania and Kosovo in judo. She ranked ninth for Kosovo in the -57kg category at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and won gold in the -57kg category at the 2018 European Championships in Tel Aviv, Israel. (oxygenpress.info, 03 Mar 2019; SportsDeskOnline, 26 Jun 2020)

He took up judo at age six. (europeanjudo YouTube channel, 07 Jul 2013)

He started to train together with his sister after their father took them to their first judo class together. "I started judo together with my sister. My father used to train in karate when he was young so he wanted us to learn a martial art. Our coach, Driton Kuka, was a pretty famous man in town so our father sent us to his club." (europeanjudo YouTube channel, 07 Jul 2013; patreon.com, 02 Apr 2020)

To compete at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. (telegrafi.com, 02 Mar 2020)

Winning the -73kg category at the 2018 Grand Slam event in Paris, France. (gazetaexpress.com, 11 Feb 2020)

He was named the 2018 and 2019 Best Male Athlete of the Year by the Olympic Committee of Kosovo. (noc-kosovo.org, 01 Mar 2020)