On July 28. Exhibition hall “ExCel”. Judo tournament was started several hours ago, but none of Georgians from 50, who are attending the tournament, do not have desire to look at tatami.

chance of winning medal. I am looking through the day schedule. I decided to come out. Standing in the hall I heard noise from the gym and immediately returned to the gym. Armenian Hovanes Davtyan was to wrestle against Azerbaijani Ilgar Mushkiev.  
I did not look at press-box, I sit on the usual tribune and … I was sitting next to Giorgi Vazagashvili head coach of Georgian team and Lasha Shavdatuashvili who had not win the title yet.  Next day he had to wrestle and I decided to encourage him- you have to make us happy tomorrow. He shyly smiled, I will do my best..
I told him- No one knows you, no one expect a big success from you and you have to used it, it is Olympic Games, the most none prognosis tournament.
Vazagashvili turned to me and told- I do not know about others, but I expect him to succeed. Then I told to Lasha:” believe me, it is easy to win Olympic Games, than Paris international tournament, the main thing is psychologically to be ready till the last match and everything will be ok”.
Future champion was listening to the coach carefully too and the thing what surprised me most of all was his answer- I do not have anything to worry about..
On July 29, in his first match I assured that he was saying the truth, but I thought that the match against Alexandro Suniga of Chile was not enough to make some conclusions.  When he awarded ippon over French David Laros, stronger opponent than the previous one, I guessed that he was psychologically ready. But more serious influence was ahead him. In the quarter-final he wrestled against English Colin Outs and beat the rival as well as the tribunes which were supporting English judoka, together. He managed it in extra time, which was additional nerves fight.
There was a break for half an hour and again returned to the tribunes, where I talked to Vazagashvili and Shavdatuashvili the previous day. This time Nugzar Tatalshvili was sitting next to the coach, who had to start competition next day. Vazagashvili could not hide his emotions- I told you yesterday that I was sure in Lasha’s success. At this time telephone rang. As it was found out, Georgian Public Broadcasting had not broadcasted none of the matches of Georgian judokas and they were ringing to find out the news. Giorgi told them in details and while saying good-bye, he told to switch candles.
Japanese fans were more active than British fans, their support had did its decisive role in quarter-final, when their sportsman, Masashi Ebinuma active champion of world lost with South Korean Yun-Hop Cho with hantey 1:2. Protest of fans did its role, coaching board settled another hantey and this time Japanese sportsman managed to win 3:0. During the match between Shavdatuashvili-Ebinuma, Georgian soldiers who specially were taken to London supporting strongly, but little groups of Japanese fans were sitting in all tribunes and their support was stronger. As a result Japanese judoka had psychological superiority but Lasha convincingly was approaching gold medal. In two minutes, Lasha awarded ippon, calmed down Japanese fans and approached to the title more. Soon the second finalist was found out- Hungarian Miklos Ungvari, 3 times European champion. When I saw the statistic I found out that in 2002 when Ungvari became European champion first time, Lasha Shavdatuashvili was 9-year-old.
The main thing is not to think over something in parterre in other way he cannot defeat Shavdatuashvili= Levan Zhorzholiani told me, who was sitting next to the press-box. Other members of the team predicted relatively careful match and Lasha’s victory. In ten minutes, no one was as happy as we were in “ExCel” gym. Shavdatuashvili became Olympic champion as a result of yoko awarded in the first minutes of the match.   
Georgian judoka was the youngest among the participants in 66 kg weight category.
In two hours after winning the first gold medal at London Olympic Games, all the guests invited at the opening of Georgian house touched the medal. As for me, I petted Olympic gold medal in the morning, before starting preliminary matches. Brazilians took sits next to press-box. Among them was Sara Menezes- judoka who became champion in 48kg weight category the previous day. She had gold medal with her and agreed with Georgian journalists to take photos with her. One of them wished us to have the same result. At the end of the article, there is a small interview with Shavdatuashvili, which is made after post championship press-conference.
- Was championship your goal at the beginning?
- Of course it was. I arrived here for success. Before going to tatami I knew who was my rival, I would fight for victory against any opponent.
- You appeared in a big judo very fast. How did you manage it?
- I became world champion among youths and last year I joined senior team. I had everything to succeed. I had a lot of high-class international meeting with a strong staff. I was so satisfied with those meetings that such result is logical.
- What does gold medal mean for you?
- It means a big gladness given to Georgia and a very good stimulus to guys. As for the mood in the team, there is quite a good situation and it also helped me to achieve this success.
- When Mikloz Angvari became champion first time, you were 10-year-old. Today you met him in final. You beat several experienced opponents in such way. How did you manage it?
- First of all, good physical preparation helped me to do it. These trainings took me till today’s result. I realized that I had to do my best and I achieved my goal. But to tell the truth, I started competition at seniors’ tournament so fast that for some time I even did not believe that I would gain license for London Olympics.

Otar Maglakaelidze special correspondent of “Worldsport.ge” from London

Photos by Author