Luka Kapanadze claims first medal for Georgia at Cadet World Judo Championships

Georgia’s young judo talent Luka Kapanadze scored the country’s first medal on the first day of competition at the Cadet World Judo Championships 2017 on Wednesday.

Kapanadze took silver in the 55kg category at the Santiago National Stadium in Chile, where over 420 judokas from 64 countries are competing for honours.

The young judoka lost out to Turkey’s European Youth Olympic Festival winner and European Champion Mihrac Akkus in the match for the gold.

Kapanadze and Turkey’s Akkus photographed in action in the final. Photo: Cadet World Judo Championships.

However the silver for Kapanadze was ensured since his defeat of Russia’s Abrek Naguchev in the semifinal.

In the preliminary rounds the 16-year old also celebrated wins against Antfernee Pepin of the Dominican Republic, Yermek Amangeldi from Kazakhstan and Hitoyoshi Sumi of Japan.

During the five encounters Kapanadze scored two ippons and one waza-ari against his opponents.

The results comes as another success of 2017 for the Georgian who claimed third place and bronze medal at the Bielsko Biala Cadet European Cup in Poland earlier this year.

The Cadet World Judo Championships will continue with more individual and team fixtures over the next four days before the tournament concludes on Sunday.

Georgia’s cadet team is represented by 10 boys in seven weight categories as well as three girls in three categories of the competition.