Respectful fighters Korrel and Liparteliani celebrate birthday

There is always a nice atmosphere when some of the top athletes fight each other in the category U100kg. Also a friendly approach of some of the contests where the differences are small and some of the top contenders have all defeated each other in the past. Always there is respect between top rivals Peter Paltchik, Toma Nikiforov, Varlam Liparteliani, Michael Korrel. They have met so often at training camps, at events, but also as friends, going out, playing cards, visiting hotel rooms, meetings at the gym and having fun in general.

World and Olympic medallist Varlam Liparteliani has now retired. He celebrates his 33^rd birthday today with his family. One of his frenemies was Michael Korrel, he celebrates 28 years today. Usually Liparteliani was the one who booked the victory, but in more recent years Korrel struck back. It delivered priceless photos and beautiful respectful moments in judo between the two gladiators. Recently we saw the friendly decision of the video referee at the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv between Toma Nikiforov and Peter Paltchik. This is the kind of respect that we need in these tough days. We hope that this kind of pictures can be witnessed with many spectators having enjoyed a great contest between two athletes.

Other top athletes fighting in this category born in February are Elkhan Mammadov, Maxim Rakov, Nikoloz Sherazadishvili, Alexandre Iddir, Aaron Wolf, Joakim Dvarby, Simeon Catharina, Arman Adamian and Grigori Minaskin. It looks like you need to be born to be a king in the U100kg category.