The leadership of the Georgian National Olympic Committee summarized the competition of those athletes who have already finished participating in Rio 2016. The GNOC president Leri Khabelov, representatives of the federations and athletes attended the meeting in the Olympic village.
The medalists and the first-eight-place athletes were awarded diplomas of the International Olympic Committee. Leri Khabelov gave a brief interview to World Sport.
- Judo has finished at the Olympics. The Georgian fans expected more medals in this sport. Silver and bronze medals are considered failure…
- First of all, I want to congratulate Lasha Shavdatuashvili and Varlam Liparteliani on their success. As for our team’s competition, of course, we expected gold medal. At the last World Championship our team won only one bronze. So, the Olympics must be considered satisfactory.
- According to some fans, the judo team was not prepared for the Olympics. Do you agree on this opinion?
- If the team had not been prepared, we would not have achieved such result. Avtandil Tchrikishvili (81 kg) had to achieve more but everything happens in sport. You cannot plan everything in advance.
- If it is not a secret, how many medals did you expect in judo?
- One more medal.
- Gold?
- Not gold but one more medal.
- What are you expecting now?
- Our weightlifters and freestyle wrestling team have not started participating in the Olympics yet. We are expecting gold medal in these sports.
- How would you summarize competition of other Georgian athletes?
- Luba Golovina overcame the qualifying round and made through to the final and it is success. I am satisfied with tennis player Nikoloz Basilashvili’s game. I can say the same about fencer Sandro Bazadze. Everybody did their best. We expected more but could not achieve. However, it is not tragedy. We can achieve success in other sports.
Otar Maglakelidze, special correspondent of worldsport.ge in Rio de Janeiro