World Champion Guram Tushishvili suspended for two months

Oliver Sellner

World Champion Guram Tushishvili who won the Grand Slam in Tbilisi last year is not allowed to defend his title. He was suspended based upon the IJF SOR Section 4.1 where an athlete classified in any IJF World Ranking, is not authorized to take part in an international competition of any combat sport, other than judo, unless authorization has been given by the IJF.

Enough warnings

Tushishvili who competed several times at Kurash Championships, was now suspended for two months at international judo competitions. Tushishvili knew the risk as he was warned many times for competing in Kurash and therefore accepted the consequences.

The suspension though creates a new discussion about this regulation as Tushishvili is likely made an example as a Judo World Champion. He competed at a prize tournament where they fees were highly attractive with 50,000 USD as prize money, so the story has two sides.

Many examples

For instance the Sambo World Championships in 2018 consisted of many judo athletes. Of the 108 medal winning athletes at the 2018 World Sambo Championships in Bucharest 20 athletes competed in the IJF World Tour or Continental Open events since 2016. Twelve of them even fought in 2018 at international judo events and ten even fought in the IJF World Tour.

Bronze medallist in Ekaterinburg Behruzi Khojazada for instance was the Sambo World Champion in 2017 and won bronze at the Worlds’ in 2018. Narantsetseg Ganbaatar won gold this year at the European Open in Oberwart and took a bronze medal at last year’s World Championships in Sambo. This year in Prague at the European Open Anastasia Sapsai took bronze and was bronze medallist as well in Sambo. So there are many examples of judoka competing internationally in other combat sports outside judo. Let alone in the national countries.

Tushishvili lost the semi final in the Kurash event.