2 gold, 1 silver medals and the 2nd team place- this is the result of Georgian Youth Judo team at Euopean Championship which was held in the city of Bulgaria, Samokov.
Otar Kaidarashvili (55 kg) and Avtandil Chrikishvili (81 kg) had the best result among Georgian judokas. They won gold medals. Yesterday Giorgi Nozadze (90 kg) lost the fight for gold medal and he won silver medal. Shmagi Lagazuri (60 kg), Lasha Shavdatuashvili (66 kg), Betkil Aprasidze (73 kg), Mikheil Narimanidze (100 kg) and Levan Matiashvili (+100 kg) could not win any medal.
Soso Liparteliani, bronze medal winner at Atlanta Olympic Games 1996, had a debut as a head coach of Georgian team. His debut should be considered successfully.
Kaidarashvili won the first gold medal. He beat Grigol Ivanyan (Armenia) in the final. The match was quite tense. The main time (2-2 penalties) finished draw. Georgian judoka won in the added time and became owner of gold medal. Avtandil Chrikishvili won the second gold medal. Aleksandr Kukolj (Serbia) was opponent of Chrikishvili in the final. Georgian sportsmen needed only 57 seconds to beat his opponent - he won by ippon.
Giorgi Nozadze needed only one victory to win gold medal. In the final he was beat by representative of Russian Magomed Magomedov.
According to the team results, Russia took the first place (2 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals).


Roland Labuchidze