For Georgia it was a great start of the adidas European Championships. Georgia continues the success of last year but now already with two gold medals at the first day. The new president David Kevkishvili was not surprised and already announced two gold medals today for his stars Papinashvili and Shavdatuashvili.
Amiran Papinashvili added: “It is the dream of each judoka to win when you come to the European or World Championships. Today this dream came true for me in Budapest. (On winning the title after taking bronze one year ago) Since last year, I’ve gotten more experience and after the bronze medal last year I pushed myself in training. This helped me to win today.
Olympic Champion Lasha Shavdatuashvili was more expected although it wasn’t easy today: “This is my first official competition since the Olympic Games and I am glad I proved that winning the Olympics wasn’t a fluke. Since the Olympic Games I had back surgery (disc) and I couldn’t train for a few months. I only came back after New Year, so my time to prepare was short. I prepared intensively for this event.”
Georgia is leading the medal tally after day one.
