Walentyn Hrekow

Walentyn Anatolijowytsch Hrekow ( Ukrainian Валентин Анатолійович Греков ; born April 18, 1976 in Dnipropetrovsk , Ukrainian SSR ) is a former Ukrainian judoka . He was European Champion in 2002, 2003 and 2007.

Career

The 1.83 m tall Walentyn Hrekow fought until 2000 in the light middleweight division, the weight class up to 81 kilograms. In 1999 he won the World Cup tournament in Moscow. At the European Championships in Wroclaw in 2000 , he reached the semi-finals with a victory over the German Dirk Radszat , after defeats against the Spaniard Ricardo Echarte and the Estonian Aleksei Budõlin he finished fifth.

In 2001 Hrekow switched to middleweight, the weight class up to 90 kilograms. At the European Championships in Paris in 2001 , he finished seventh. In January 2002 he won the tournament in Moscow. Three months later at the European Championships in Maribor he defeated the Dutchman Mark Huizinga in the quarter -finals, the Georgian Surab Swiadauri in the semifinals and the Belarusian Sergej Kucharenko in the final . In 2003 he won the World Cup tournament in Budapest and lost to the Italian Yosvane Despaigne in the final of the tournament in Rome . At the European Championships in Düsseldorf he defeated the French Frédéric Demontfaucon in the quarterfinals , the Estonian Dmitri Budõlin in the semifinals and the Russian Chassanbi Taow in the final . At the 2003 World Championships in Osaka, he was eliminated in his opening match against the Italian Francesco Lepre . At the 2004 European Championships in Bucharest he was defeated by Francesco Lepre in the semifinals, in the battle for a bronze medal he defeated Frédéric Demontfaucon. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Hrekow won his opening match against the Spaniard David Alarza and then eliminated in the round of 16 against the Argentine Eduardo Costa .

In 2005, Hrekow finished seventh at the European Championships in Rotterdam . At the end of 2005 he won his first Ukrainian championship title, followed by two more titles in 2008 and 2009. In 2006, Hrekow was eliminated in his opening fight at the European Championships in Tampere against the Greek Ilias Iliadis . A year later at the European Championships in Belgrade he defeated the Poles Krzysztof Węglarz in the quarter -finals, the German Michael Pinske in the semifinals and the Georgian Irakli Zirekidze in the final . At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he lost his opening match against José Gregorio Camacho from Venezuela.

In 2010 Hrekow lost to the Georgian Warlam Liparteliani in the quarterfinals of the World Championships in Tokyo . With a victory in the hope round against the Austrian Max Schirnhofer , Hrekow reached the fight for a bronze medal, which he lost to Elxan Məmmədov from Azerbaijan. In 2011 Hrekow finished seventh at the World Championships in Paris . In 2013 he reached the final at the Grand Slam tournament in Baku , where he lost to Shahin Gahramanov from Azerbaijan. At the end of 2013, at the end of his career, Hrekow finished second at the Ukrainian championships.

Web links

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

Footnotes

1. ↑ Match balance at judoinside.com