Today, European Judo Championship will start in Istanbul and it will last till April 24. On the first three days of the championship, champions and prize winners will be found out in 7 weight classes. On the last day, the team winner will be found out. Georgian team left for Turkey with 17 judokas. 14 judokas will participate in individual competition. Austrian head coach Peter Seisenbacher added 3 judokas to the team list. Ballot was held yesterday and opponents of Georgians are already found out.
Amiran Papinashvili and Betkil Shukvani will wrestle in 60 kg. Papinashvili will wrestle against Turkish Ozkanoglu Iskender. In case of beating him, perhaps, Amiran will wrestle against French Sofiane Milous. In the third circle – ¼ final, opponent of Amiran will be Georgian Georgii Zantaraia who is competing in the name of Ukriane. The first opponent of Shukvani will be Finnish Valtteri Jokinen. Then, there is a chance that he might wrestle against Armenian Hovhannes Davtyan. This year, Shukvani and Davtyan have wrestled against each other twice and Shukvani lost by ippons.
Shalva Kardava (66 kg) will start participation from the second circle, like his first opponents – Turkish Mehmet Durmaz. Winner will wrestle against winner between French David Larose and Azerbaijani Tarian Karimov. In this weight class, Giorgi Shoshiashvili will wrestle against Romanian Laszlo Szoke. Winner between them will wrestle against Azerbaijani Samir Dadashzade.
Ambako Avaliani (73 kg) will start competition from the second circle. Before that, he will wait for the winner between Armenian Artyom Baghdasaryan and Romanian Adrian Nicolae Merge. The best among these three judokas will wrestle against winner between French Benjamin Darbelet and Jewish Iosef Palelashvili in 1/8 final and against winner among Ukrainian Volodymyr Soroka, Azerbaijani Renat Mirzaliyev or Spanish Kiyoshi Uematsu in ¼ final. Belgian Dirk Van Tichelt is one of the main favorites in this weight class. The first opponent of Tengiz Paposhvili will be French Ugo Legrand. In case of beating him, Tengiz will wrestle against Azerbaijani Ramil Gasimov. Russian Mansur Isaev is in this group but he will not wrestle against Paposhvili till ¼ final.
Levan Tsiklauri and Davit Karbelashvili will wrestle in 81 kg. Tsiklauri will start participation from the second circle. Before that, Ukrainian Artem Vasylenko and Estonian Aleksander Marmeljuk will wrestle against each other. In case of victory, Tsiklauri might wrestle against Russian Sirazhudin Magomedov. German Olympic champion Ole Bischof is on this side of the wrap. Karbelashvili will also start participation from the second circle. Turkish Halil Ibrahim Ozerler will be his opponent. Winner will wrestle against winner between Hungarian Sandor Nagysolymosi and Croatian Tomislav Marijanovic in 1/8 final. In case of overcoming this stage, perhaps, Karbelashvili will wrestle against Azerbaijani Elnur Mammadli in ¼ final.
Varlam Liparteliani and Lasha Guruli (both 90 kg) will start participation from the second circle. Liparteliani will wrestle against Polish Krzysztof Weglarz. Then, he will wrestle against winner between German Christoph Lambert and Hungarian Gabor Ver. Perhaps, Liparteliani will wrestle against Swedish Marcu Nyman in ¼ final. Liparteliani lost against Nyman in the final of last championship. Swedish judoka will find it difficult to go through ¼ final because he needs to beat three opponents: Spanish David Alarza, Ukrainian Valentyn Grekov and Georgian Tentore Masmanidis (Tevdore Abelashvili) who is competing in the name of Greece. Guruli will wrestle against Ukrainian Vadym Synyavsky. In case of beating him, he will wrestle against winner between Polish Robert Krawczyk and Swiss Dominique Hischier. In ¼ final, Guruli might wrestle against Azerbaijani Elkhan Mammadov.
Irakli Tsirekidze and Levan Zhorzholiani (both 100 kg) will not wrestle in the first circle. Russian Sergey Samoylovich will be the first opponent of Tsirekidze. The best of them will wrestle against Azerbaijani Elmar Gasimov. One of the main favorites Dutch Henk Grol is in this wrap. Serbian Predrag Budic will be the first opponent of Zhorzholiani. In case of beating him, Zhorzholiani will wrestle against Montenegrin Nikola Vulevic or Romanian Alexandru Nedelcu. The best from these four judokas will wrestle against Dutch Elco van der Geest. He will compete in the name of Belgium.
Heavyweight Nodar Metreveli will start participation from the second circle and will wrestle against French Teddy Riner. Zviad Khanjaliashvili will wrestle against Dutch Luuk Verbij. In case of beating him, Metreveli will wrestle against winner between French Matthieu Bataille and British Chris Sherrington. Ukrainian Stanislav Bondarenko might be his opponent in ¼ final. Belarusian Ihar Makarau, Hungarian Barna Bor and Russian Andrey Volkov are on this side of the wrap.
Today, winners will be found out in 60 and 66 kg, tomorrow – in 73 and 81 kg and the day after tomorrow – in 90, 100 and +100 kg. The first stage matches will start at 12:00 Tbilisi time.
Otar Maglakelidze
