Japan, Germany, Belgium, Kazakhstan, USA, Sweden, South Korea, Russia, Spain, France, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Brazil, Czech Republic, Italy, Israel, Latvia – these are those countries which showed better results than Georgia at Dusseldorf Grand Prix. Georgian judo team, coached by Austrian Peter Seisenbacher competed in prestigious international tournament without winning medal. Two 5th places were enough only for team 19th place.
On the second day of the tournament – on February 20, champions and prize winners were found out in 81, 90, 100 and +100 kg. Six Georgian judokas wrestled on tatami and Varlam Liparteliani (90 kg) showed the best result among them. After beating Polish Krzysztof Weglarz and French Yves Matthieu Dafreville, Liparteliani lost against Swedish Marcus Nyman in ¼ final. Liparteliani was winning with waza-ari and could not manage to keep advantage – 5 seconds before the final siren he lost by waza-ari. Liparteliani took the 5th place.
After a long pause, Irakli Tsirekidze (100 kg) returned to international tatami. He held only two matches. Irakli beat Ukrainian Viacheslav Denysov by ippon but in 1/8 final, he lost against Mongolian Temuulen Battulga by ippon (two waza-aris).
Heavyweight Zviad Khanjaliashvili achieved only one victory at Grand Prix. He beat Azerbaijani Emil Tahirov. He was winning over Lithuanian Marius Paskevicius by waza-ari and yuko but then lost. Also, Nodar Metreveli wrestled in +100 kg and like Khanjaliashvili, he lost in 1/8 final. Before that, he beat two opponents – Turkish Ensar Tama and Slovenian Matjaz Ceraj. Brazilian Rafael Silva beat Metreveli.
Avtandil Chrikishvili and Levan Tsiklauri (both 81 kg) held only one match at Dusseldorf Grand Prix. Chrikishvili lost against Italian Francesco Bruyere and Tsiklauri – against Latvian Konstantin Ovchinnikov.
Peter Seisenbacher will take Georgian judokas from Germany to Japan to hold a 18-day meeting. Austrian specialist filled the list of Tokyo before the start of Dusseldorf Grand Prix. Davit Asumbani and Zviad Khanjaliashvili are not in this list.
Otar Maglakelidze
Judo. Grand Prix
Dusseldorf. February 20
Men
81 kg
1 Travis Stevens (USA)
2 Murat Khabachirov (Russia)
3 Elnur Mammadli (Azerbaijan)
3 Arsen Pshmakhov (Russia)
90 kg
1 Marcus Nyman (Sweden)
2 Romain Buffet (France)
3 Masashi Nishiyama (Japan)
3 Vadym Synyavsky (Ukraine)
5 Varlam Liparteliani (Georgia)
100 kg
1 Maxim Rakov (Kazakhstan)
2 Dimitr Peters (Germany)
3 Jevgenijs Borodavko (Latvia)
3 Lukas Krpalek (Czech Republic)
+100 kg
1 Andreas Toelzer (Germany)
2 Keiji Suzuki (Japan)
3 Rafel Silva (Brazil)
3 Robert Zimmermann (Germany)
Women
70 kg
1 Fei Chen (China)
2 Iljana Markoz (Germany)
3 Yuri Alvear (Columbia)
3 Juliane Robra (Switzerland)
78 kg
1 Lkhamdegd Purevjargal (Mongolia)
2 Heide Wollert (Germany)
3 Marhinde Verkerk (Netherlands)
3 Xiuli Yang (China)
+78 kg
1 Mika Sugimoto (Japan)
2 Lucija Polavder (Slovenia)
3 Anne-Sophie Mondiere (France)
3 Qian Qin (China)
Team results. Men
1 Japan 2 1 2 2 0
2 Germany 1 1 1 4 0
3 Belgium 1 0 0 1 0
3 Kazakhstan 1 0 0 1 0
3 USA 1 0 0 1 0
6 Sweden 1 0 0 0 0
7 South Korea 0 2 0 0 0
8 Russia 0 1 2 0 0
9 Spain 0 1 0 1 0
9 France 0 1 0 1 0
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19 Georgia 0 0 0 2 0
