Orange judoka Tsjakadoea too heavy at weigh-in: cancels European Championship participation

NOS Sports•today, 6:08 PM•Amended today, 7:37 PM

Tornike Tsjakadoea has been excluded from participating in the European Judo Championships, which start on Thursday in Zagreb. The Dutchman with Georgian roots, competing in the class up to 60 kilograms, turned out to be too heavy today at the weigh-in for the tournament.

During such a weighing, judokas may not weigh a gram above the maximum allowed weight in their class. It is rare that a judoka does not pass a weigh-in, but especially in the lightweight class of Tsjakadoea, it is often a challenge to stay under 60 kilograms.

“There will of course be many people who will draw conclusions from outside, but do not know what happens behind the scenes and what this sport demands of your body,” Tsjakadoea told NOS.

The judoka emphasizes that the weighing is his own responsibility. “Of course. This time the weight was more difficult than expected. Perhaps because of the many tournaments I have played. Or because I have often had to lose weight and my body reacts to it in a certain way. Or because of the discharge and emotions after a period of score points for the Games.”

Tsjakadoea won bronze at a Grand Slam tournament for the fifth time in his career in Tbilisi in March. He is well on his way to qualifying for the Olympic Games again. At the European Championships he could have won points for the Olympic rankings.

In 2021, Tsjakadoea lost the Olympic bronze medal match at the Games in Japan.

A spokesperson for the Dutch judo association said they do not know exactly what went wrong. “It is not as black and white as it sometimes seems. He is closely supervised.”

“I cannot say now whether Tornike himself has done things wrong or whether his body has reacted differently due to the many tournaments in the past period. We simply do not know that at the moment. So a ‘blame question’ is really not yet up for grabs. order. We are going to investigate this carefully so that it cannot happen again.”

Tsjakadoea concludes with the words: “It’s just about learning from your mistakes and moving on. That’s top sport.”