Vsevolods Zeļonijs

Vsevolods Zeļonijs (born February 24, 1973 in Riga ) is a former Latvian judoka and (as of 2018) the only judo Olympic medalist in Latvia. Until 1995 he fought at half-light weight (up to 65 kg), from 1996 he started at light weight (1997 to 71 kg, from 1998 to 73 kg).

Career

Zeļonijs won the silver medal behind Frenchman Benoît Campargue at the 1992 European Championships . At the 1992 Olympics , he was eliminated in his first fight. In 1993 he lost to the Russian Sergei Kosminin in the European Championship final . In 1995 Zeļonijs reached the final of the European Championships for the third time and received his third silver medal after his final defeat against the German Peter Schlatter .

In 1997 after moving to the lightweight, Zeļonijs won his only Latvian championship title. After a seventh place at the European Championships, he received the bronze medal at the Judo World Championships in Paris in 1997 . Zeļonijs won his next medal at international championships three years later at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney . After a defeat in the quarterfinals against the Italian Giuseppe Maddaloni , Zeļonijs fought his way through to the bronze medal in the second chance.

In 2002 at the European Championships in Maribor, Zeļonijs defeated Giuseppe Maddaloni in the quarterfinals, but then lost in the semifinals to the Belarusian Anatoly Laryukov and ultimately received the bronze medal. Two years later he defeated Laryukov in the round of 16 of the European Championships in Bucharest, but lost in the semifinals to the Israeli Yoel Razvozov and received a bronze medal again at the end. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Zeļonijs lost in his first fight. Zeļonijs won his last international tournament victory in 2007 at the World Cup in Bucharest. After his first round defeat at the 2008 Olympic Games , Vsevolods Zeļonijs ended his sporting career.

Web links

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