Georgian judoka wins bronze at world championship

Georgia’s judo team has won its first medal at the World Judo Championship 2014 following budding judoka Amiran Papinashvili’s bronze medal success on Monday.

Papinashvili, a silver medal-holder from the European Championship, took part in six fights in the -60kg category at the championship, which started in Chelyabinsk, Russia, yesterday.

Georgia sent 10 judokas to Chelyabinsk. The nine men and one woman will defend their world title at this year’s event.

The men’s Georgian team is regarded as one of the strongest in the world. It satisfied all the selection conditions and gained the right to send 18 athletes – nine men and nine women – to the competition, which was the largest number of athletes from a single country.

However, Georgia’s head coach decided to send only 10 athletes and not send judokas in the –66kg and –100kg weight divisions and instead involve two middle-weight judoka in each of the following categories; –73kg, –81kg, –90kg categories, as well as +100kg.

The solo Georgian judoka competing in the World Judo Championship 2014 is Esther Stam (–70kg). Stam, who was born in Holland but now competed for Georgia, was currently ranked 42nd in the World Ranking List. She was the winner of the Universiade-2011.

The Georgian men’s team are the current world champions. In 2013 in Rio de Janeiro the Georgians beat the Russian team in the final bout.