Nikoloz Sherazadishvili dedicates World title to his father

The World title for Nikoloz Sherazadishvili was a very special occasion, not only Sherazadishvili became the first Spanish male athlete to take the title, but after a difficult year where Nikoloz’s father passed away a little bit more than one year before the World Championships, it was an absolute wish to dedicate the medal to his father.

Sherazadishvili: “It was a very difficult draw. In the first fight, the second fight, all the rounds, my rivals were either European Champion or World medalists or Olympics medalists. After the draw, I called Quino (his coach), to talk with him. He also wanted to hear my voice and I wanted to hear his voice, just to tell him: ‘’I’m here Quino, we’ve prepared for that, we have been working all the year long for that and if we want to become World Champion, we have to beat anybody.”

 “In our previous fights, Toth scored against me always with very little time left. I was always dominating the combat and he was always able to score in the very remaining seconds. And this time again, he had an opportunity and he took benefit of this thousandth of a second. When I looked at the scoreboard, I also saw Quino’s face and I could read on it “Ouff! We escaped from this!”

“I was only thinking to take the grip again, the very same grip from what he countered me earlier. I knew that if I could catch this grip, he would wait for me again to counter me. When I caught the belt once again, I grabbed his sleeve and this is the very last action of the golden score where he is waiting for my attack, I stay standing, and I know that he wants to counter me as I know that I want to pull him. This is a moment we are both pulling, we are still both standing and I manage to hook him a little bit more firmly and when I feel this is the right moment I launched my attack and threw him. This is how I scored my second waza-ari to become World Champion.”

“The thinking was towards my father, to be able to dedicate him this medal. He would have been even happier than me. It was his dream. Each one of his messages were about the World Championship, the World Championship all the time. We were preparing together for this. All our talks were focused on this goal of the World Champs. And before the competition, I was also thinking on that. That’s why I wanted so much to dedicate to him this medal he was so much deserving. That was my feeling on the podium: to be able to dedicate this medal to my father.”