Heorhij Santaraja

Heorhij Santaraja (2013)

Heorhij Malchasowytsch Santaraja ( Ukrainian Георгій Малхазович Зантарая ; born October 21, 1987 in Gali ) is a Ukrainian judoka . He was world champion in 2009 and European champion in 2011 and 2017.

Career

Santaraja was born in Abkhazia , but always competed for Ukraine. The 1.71 m tall judoka fought in the super lightweight until 2012, the weight class up to 60 kilograms. In 2006 he was U20 European Champion and in 2007 and 2008 third in the U23 European Championships. In 2008 he also won his first Ukrainian national championship title.

At the European Championships in Tbilisi in 2009 he defeated the Georgian Nestor Khergiani in the semifinals , and in the final he was defeated by the Russian Arsen Galstjan . Four months later, at the 2009 World Championships in Rotterdam, he defeated Khergiani in the quarter-finals and defeated Iranian Vahid Sarlak in the semifinals . After his final victory against the Japanese Hiroaki Hiraoka , Santaraja was world champion. In 2010 he only finished seventh at the European Championships . At the World Championships in Tokyo he defeated Ludwig Paischer from Austria in the quarterfinals and Arsen Galstjan in the semifinals. In the final he was defeated by the Uzbek Rishod Sobirov . In 2011 at the European Championships in Istanbul, he defeated the Georgian Amiran Papinashvili in the quarter-finals and the German Tobias Englmaier in the semifinals . In the final he met the Georgian Betkili Schukwani and won the European championship. Three days after his individual title, Santaraja won the team title with the Ukrainian team, he was the only Ukrainian who won two medals at the 2011 European Championships. Four months later at the World Championships in Paris Santaraja lost in the quarter-finals to the South Korean Choi Gwang-hyeon . The Ukrainian won a bronze medal with victories in the round of hope over Armenian Howhannes Dawtjan and the second South Korean Kim Won-jin . In 2012 Santaraja was defeated in the semi-finals of the European Championships to Armenian Howhannes Dawtjan and in the battle for bronze to Jeroen Mooren from the Netherlands . At the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Santaraja lost in his first fight against the Italian Elio Verde .

After the Olympic Games, Santaraja switched to half-light weight, the weight class up to 66 kilograms. Here he won the Ukrainian championships in 2012. At the 2013 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, he was defeated in the semifinals to Kazakhs Azamat Mukanov , and in the battle for a bronze medal he defeated the Russian Mikhail Puljajew . At the European Championships in 2014 , Palyayev and Santaraja met again in the battle for bronze, this time Palyayev won. Four months later, at the World Championships in Chelyabinsk, Santaraja lost to the Japanese Masashi Ebinuma in the quarterfinals . With victories over the Uzbek Rishod Sobirov and the second Japanese Kengo Takaichi , Santaraja won the bronze medal, his fifth world championship medal in a row. This series broke in 2015 and Santaraja was not successful at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Like four years before, he lost his first fight, this time against the Portuguese Sergiu Oleinic .

At the European Championships 2017 in Warsaw, Santaraja won the semi-finals over the Slovak Matej Poliak and in the final against the Slovenian Adrian Gomboc . The Ukrainians won bronze in the team competition. At the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, Santaraja lost to the Japanese Hifumi Abe in the quarter-finals and to the Israeli Tal Flicker in the battle for bronze . A year later he also lost to Hifumi Abe in the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Championships . As in the previous year, he faced Tal Flicker in the battle for a bronze medal and this time the Ukrainian won. The 2019 European Championships were held as part of the European Games in Minsk, Santaraja won the title by beating the Italian Matteo Medves in the final .

Web links

• Tournament results at judoinside.com
• Heorhij Santaraja in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ In the match balance sheet at judoinside.com, the finalist is the Turk Bekir Ozlu. Schukwani did not move to Turkey until 2015 and adopted the name Ozlu.