Roman Hontjuk

Roman Volodymyrowisch Hontjuk ( Ukrainian Роман Володимирович Гонтюк ; born February 2, 1984 in Nadwirna , Ukrainian SSR ) is a former Ukrainian judoka . He competed in the light middleweight division (up to 81 kg) until 2008 and won two Olympic medals in this weight class.

Hontjuk was European Junior Champion in 2001 and 2002 and finished second at the 2002 Junior World Championships. In 2003 he took third place with the Ukrainian team at the European Team Championships. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens , Hontjuk defeated the German Florian Wanner in the quarter-finals and Robert Krawczyk from Poland in the semifinals . In the final he played the Greek Ilias Iliadis , who won in front of a home crowd after two minutes through Ippon .

At the Judo World Championships in Cairo in 2005 he lost in the semifinals against the Dutchman Guillaume Elmont , but then secured the bronze medal by defeating the South Korean Kim Min-kyu . In 2006 Hontjuk won the World Cup in Borås, 2007 in Baku and 2008 in Vienna. But it wasn't until the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 that he again reached the medal ranks at an international championship. After a semi-final defeat against the German Ole Bischof , he won the battle for bronze against the Mongols Damdinsürengiin Njamchüü .

From 2009 Hontjuk competed in middleweight (up to 90 kg). At the 2011 European Judo Championships he won the gold medal with the Ukrainian team, and in 2012 he won the bronze medal with the Ukrainian team. At the Olympic Games in London , Hontjuk lost his opening fight.

Web links

• Roman Hontjuk at JudoInside.com
• Roman Hontjuk in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )