Management of Georgian Wrestling Federation held a press conference to summarize Oleg Karavaev International Tournament. Georgian Greco-Roman style wrestlers team held 5 matches in Belarus and took the 2nd place among 10 participants. The team of Begi Darchia beat all its opponents in sub-group. The team won over Russian team 4:3, Ukrainians - 5:2, USA - 6:1 and the second Belarusian team - 7:0. Georgian played against the host team in the final and lost 2:5. According to the information from Minsk, the score was 3:4.
Wrestlers of Georgian team attended the press conference. Temur Kazarashvili, vice-president of Wrestling Federation, and Davit Namgalauri, secretary of minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, talked to journalists.
"After World Championship, the team competed in the first international tournament. Karavaev tournament is held every year but this year it was held by another format and it was good for us because we knew that all wrestlers would hold 5-5 matches. After the voting, almost all strong teams were in sub-group of Georgia. We wrestled without one wrestler in decisive match against Belarusian first team. Genadi Gogishvili (74 kg) could not help the team because of injury. He won all 4 matches. Revaz Lashkhi (60 kg) had the best result. He won all 5 matches. Lasha Gogitidze (55 kg) and Anton Mamageishvili (66 kg) won 4-4 matches. Vladimir Gegeshidze (84 kg) and Guram Perselidze (120 kg) - 3-3 matches, Mikheil Kajaia (96 kg) - 2 matches. Entirely, the team competed successfully" - stated Temur Kazarashvili.
Davit Namgalauri mentioned that Georgian team did not have a good season and added that these result should help sportsmen.
"Next year will be important for our wrestlers. We are expecting good result from our team. We cannot call the current year successful and after a long discussion we decided to give another chance to head coach. It is good that renewed staff achieved this result. Georgian Championship is to be held and let us hope that it will be a strong competition. Leaders returned to the championship and competition has increased" - mentioned Namgalauri.
Tamaz Gegeshidze, vice-president of Wrestling Federation, asked secretary of minister of Sport and Youth Affairs to make some exceptions. For example, current Georgian champion Genadi Gogishvili who was injured in Belarus. Perhaps, he could not wrestle at the next championship and he might lose one year salary. Namgalauri repeated that all wrestlers must participate in the championship but such occasions will be taken into consideration and the Ministry will discuss it.



Otar Maglakelidze