Georgian para athlete’s gold medal reinstated following appeal against revocation

Rati Ionatamishvili, the President of the Georgian Paralympic Committee, revealed on Sunday that the country’s para shot putter Giga Ochkhikidze’s gold medal, won at the ongoing Summer Paralympic Games in Paris, had been reinstated following an appeal against its revocation.

The para athlete recorded a throw of 9.66 metres, setting the world record in Men’s shot put at the Paralympics, however, following the protest from Iranian, Moroccan and Polish delegations, the judges determined that Ochkhikidze had violated the rules of the throw. The gold medal was then awarded to the Moroccan athlete Abdelilah Anis instead.

He added that he and other committee representatives had several hours of meetings with the organisers and judges, where he presented video evidence showing that Ochkhikidze executed the throw in compliance with the rules of the game.Ionatamishvili stressed that “the unfair treatment of para athletes was unacceptable”.

 Ochkhikidze broke the world record and became the first Georgian para athlete claiming the gold at the Paris Paralympic Games.

Georgia has won two medals at the ongoing Games in France so far. Para taekwondo athletes Ana Japaridze won bronze on Thursday in the women’s 52kg division.

The national team competes with 14 athletes in six sports.