Irakli Zirekidze

Irakli Zirekidze

Irakli Zirekidze ( Georgian ირაკლი ცირეკიძე , English transcription: Irakli Tsirekidze ; born May 3, 1982 ) is a Georgian judoka and Olympic middleweight champion in the category up to 90 kilograms.

Irakli Zirekidze took second place at the World Cup in Tbilisi in 2005 and also made it onto the podium in third place at the World Cup tournament in Prague. In 2006 he won the World Cup tournament in Lisbon and at the World Team Championships in Paris with the Georgian team. In 2007 he took second place at the World Cup tournament in Tbilisi and shortly afterwards won in Warsaw. At the European Judo Championships in Belgrade in 2007, he lost in the final to the Ukrainian Walentyn Hrekow . In September 2007 he won the title at the World Championships in Rio de Janeiro , in October he was European team champion in Minsk. In 2008 he finished second at the World Cup in Tbilisi and won in Prague. At the European Championships in Lisbon , he won the bronze medal. Tsirekidze's greatest success was then the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing .

One and a half months after the Olympic Games, Zirekidze was part of the winning team at the World Team Championships in Tokyo, but now in his new weight class, the light heavyweight up to 100 kilograms. In the new weight class, he could not achieve any great success in 2009, in 2010 he took third place at the Grand Slam tournament in Paris, he won the World Cup tournament in Madrid. In 2011 he won the bronze medal at the European Championships in Istanbul and the World Championships in Paris .

Web links

• Irakli Zirekidze in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Irakli Tsirekidze on judoinside