International Tournament «Acropolis 2008»: 1st day

A five minute … gold medal for Dionisis Iliadis in Loutraki

 

From the first half part or the International tournament ‘Acropolis 2008’ hosted in Loutraki, three conclusions have come up. First, Greek judo has found a permanent place, secondly, Dionisis Iliadis is entitled to an Olympic distinction, while finally the new generation of the sport can and should become the successors of Ilias Iliadis and his friends in the Greek national team.

 

‘Judo in Greece has found a new place and it’s not going to leave this city again. Consequently, it’s a given that the next Acropolis will be hosted in our city’ were the statements made from Perahora’s Mayor, George Gionis answering to a question about a potential collaboration of the city with HJF.

 

It should be reminded that the International Tournament ‘Acropolis 2008’is dedicated to the voluntary Organization for the children, ”To Hamogelo Tou Paidiou” while sponsor of the tournament is the athletics equipment company PUMA.

 

Dionisis… of quick procedures!

In the competitive part, Dionisis Iliadis gave Greece the sole gold medal of the first day and he also did it quite quickly. In less than fifty seconds he beat with Ippon the Spanish Aaron Rodriguez, while in less than six minutes he managed to resist three opponents, winning in this way the gold medal in the -100 kg category. Filippos Amintaios’ Judoka has proved to be in great shape and he is longing to see if he is going to get the so wanted ‘wild card” in order to compete in Beijing’s Olympic Games.

 

‘I didn’t face any problems in the games. I am in a good shape and in competitive readiness, because we returned from the preparation in Kaimaktsalan only a couple of days ago. However, I am not only ready but also nervous to see if I am going to participate in the Olympic Games…’ said the champion, and he ended: ’it is a good tournament with good athletes and it really helped our competitive efforts. Judo needs to find its place in the Greek athletic world and the Federation tries really hard to succeed it…’

 

The rest Greek medals

Besides Dionisis Iliadis’ gold medal, there were also silver and bronze medals in the premiere for the Greek team, proving in the best way that the new generation of Greek judo can be worthy… The medals were won by Giannis Tsaparas, (3rd, -90kg), Sophia Georgiadou (3rd, -70 kg), Marianthi Daveli (3rd, -70 kg), Eleni Tzavara (3rd, -78kg) and Vasiliki Limperopoulou (3rd, + 78 kg). The last athlete competed having high fever, a fact that didn’t stop her from winning twice in four games.

 

One gold, seven silver medals for Spain

Spain stole the impressions in the premiere of the 2nd International Tournament “Acropolis”, since it won in total eight medals, seven of which were silver. The gold medal was taken by Marta Tort in –78kg, while one first ranking was also achieved by Greece (Dionisis Iliadis – 100 kg), Switzerland (Stephanie Egger, -70kg), Turkey (Gulsah Kocaturk, +78kg), Azerbaijan (Ramin Gurbanov, -81kg), Georgia (Vakhtangi Zoidze, +100kg) and Moldova (Sergiu Remarenco, -90kg).

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