Georgian young men win gold and destroy other European teams

In total 31 teams were gathered at the Cadet European Championships for Teams in Vantaa’s Energia Areena. 17 young men’s teams and 14 young women’s teams were fighting from 19 different nations. Team Georgia began the day as top seed of the boys’ team draw sheet.

Their first opponent was Azerbaijan which ended in a clean sweep 5-0. In the quarter-final Georgia had to take out the Turkish team and succeeded by 5-0 again. Romanian was the next opponent in the semi-final. The first three contests resulted three breath-taking ippons which secured the place for the Georgians in the final and finished in 4-1.

The men’s final was against the team of Hungary. The first contest was between Lasha Bekauri and Pongracz Bence, where the Hungarian judoka started off the contest in an incredibly high speed and alarmed the Georgian by scoring a yuko. The Hungarian was hungry for more, and during the following exchange Pongracz engaged with Bekauri and began to execute a ure-nage attempt which of Bekauri managed to escape, and the Hungarian landed on his back by his own attack. From this moment onwards, the Georgian team turned on the engines and finished off the final with another sensational 5-0 score.

Georgian cadet coach, George Kizilashvili concluded his thoughts after the medal ceremony: “Actually, we expected to win the gold medal because we have a strong team. The team spirit is above the sky, even if one of them are losing they keep motivating each other. There was no real challenge for us today but it was important for them to fight. The majority of this team will move up to the Junior level for next year, where we are aiming to win the team title as well” Kizilashvili said to the EJU reporters.