Author: Italian Judo
On the second day of competitions in Lignano, the performance of the Georgian athletes impressed, bringing home two gold medals with Luka JAVAKHISHVILI in the -81kg category and Saba KARDAVA in the +100kg category, along with Giorgi LOLADZE’s victory on Day 1 in the -73kg category. The three gold medals earned the Team Georgia the victory of the Tarcento Trophy, a local award given to the national team that achieves the highest number of gold medals in the men’s medal tally. The final of the -81kg category was decisive, featuring a spectacular match between Luka JAVAKHISHVILI and Suleyman SHKUROV of Azerbaijan, another extremely competitive team in the tournament. In the elimination rounds, Javakhishvili prevailed against: Ronalds PLOSTNIEKS (LAT), Saba ALEKSANOVI (ITA), Junior DABAYA (FRA), and Jason OKOYE (FRA). His journey was characterized by several ippons in “Georgian style”.
Kardava achieved victory after prevailing in the elimination rounds against Davit KEVLISHVILI (ESP), Guylan ALLEYNE (FRA), and Stefan KOVINIC (MNE). This is how he described his day,
Today was a good day, for me of course. Every match was interesting, the opponents were all of a high level, and I think I had some good fights. In general, it was a great competition.
The overall medal table, Valli del Torre Cup, was won by the Italian team. These were the words of Vito Zocco, manager of the Italian junior women’s team,
It was an engaging competition, the level of the participating athletes was very high, just think of the athletes from Georgia, Azerbaijan, Germany, France. I am very satisfied because for the third consecutive year we have won the overall ranking of the competition. Thanks to the athletes, clubs, families, and to Judo Kurtoki for organizing this great event.
The other trophies went to Germany, for the best performance in the women’s categories, to Società Ginnastica Triestina, as the best regional club, and to Australia, as the national team from the farthest away. Finally, in memory of a referee who passed away two years ago, the Trevisan Award was given, presented by his son and grandchildren to Pasquale Tonino Chyurlia, Metin Ozkan, and Gianluigi Pugnetti.
Author: Thea Cowen