Weightlifting. New Generation] Guram Vekua:
When you have Lasha Talakhadze as your idol, you
should only think about Olympic gold
[Weightlifting. New Generation]
Guram Vekua: When you have Lasha Talakhadze as your idol, you should only think
about Olympic gold
2022 was successful for
Georgian U-15 and U-17 wrestlers (head coach Zurab Centauri): they won 16 gold,
7 silver, and 5 bronze medals at the European Championship held in Chekhanov,
Poland on August 20-27. From the Under-17 World Cup hosted by Saudi Arabia on
October 3-12, three of our athletes won 2 gold, 6 silver, and 1 bronze medal.
Guram Vekua (born January 5, 2004), a two-time European youth champion and
silver medalist at the World Championships, lives in the village of Rike,
Zugdidi Municipality.
- Guram Vekua is a young man
with unique data, the most talented and hard-working, - Zurab Antauri told me.
- I have been training since 2018 and I do not remember missing a lesson or
needing to give extra notes. Even in 2020, despite the epidemic, we did not
stop training for a minute. I contacted you 5-10 minutes before the start of
the online workout and the modeling was already over. It is the same today. My
father stands next to me - former weightlifter Slava Vekua, with whom I have a
long friendship. Guram has the unprecedented support of his family and he does
not disappoint his parents, and not only them. I am sure that the Georgian
national wrestling team will have a decent chance if it acquires the experience
of participating in international tournaments over the years ...
After talking to the head coach
of the Georgian youth team, I met Guram Vekua in Zugdidi.
- As a child, like his peers,
he loved football, but my father, who is a two-time champion of Georgia in
weightlifting, really wanted me to continue his path, - Guram told me. - We
have a good gym in Rike. Many famous athletes grew up here. At the age of
eight, I started training with my godmother - Bezhan Chichinadze, but I could
not do anything with my heart. Secretly from my parents, on the advice of
friends, I started boxing, but soon I got bored of it too. After my dad started
working as a weight training coach, I headed back to the gym. The years went by
and I looked at the barbell with a different eye. In 2018, I took second place
in doubles at the Georgian Under-15 Championship - Bondo Chiladze from Khashuri
won. It seems that Mr. Zurab Atauri noticed me then because a month after the
competition he called me to the meeting of the Georgian team of peers in
Dusheti, then he took me to the European Championship in Italy, where I took
5th place.
- The next year turned out to
be successful.
- In January 2019, at the
initiative of Zurab teacher, I found myself in the training center of Gldani
Olympic Reserve. There I started intense training. I also had two pieces of
training twice a week and the result was not delayed: first I won the Georgian
championship in U-15, then I won three gold medals at the European Championship
in Eilat (Israel). Everything was going uphill, but restrictions were soon
imposed on the pandemic. We were not allowed in the gym, but we did not stop
rehearsing: on Mr. Zurab's advice, my father vacated the basement of our house
- my brother Irakli and I started training. Mr. Zurab was even hospitalized due
to coronavirus disease, but we continued to train online. In our free time, my
father taught us to follow the rules. This kind of training paid off - I won
three gold medals at the European Under-17 Championship in Poland in 2022, and
Irakli won one silver and two bronze medals at the Under-15 Championship.
Then there was the World Cup in
Saudi Arabia ...
Yes. There were three of us on
the team and all three were from Zugdidi. During the competition, I tried to
take into account the coach's handouts to the end. I used all three attempts in
the data, but the 148kg only brought me a silver medal. Uzbek Kurbonmurod
Nomozov won five kilograms. He had previously competed in 102kg but lost weight
for this championship and competed in 96kg. The Asian weightlifter took two
more first places, while I won silver medals in the 180 kg in Akvara and 328 kg
in the doubles. It was nice that in Saudi Arabia Natia Gadelia won two gold and
one silver medal, while Nikoloz Esartia won 2 silver and 1 bronze. So, Zugdidi
brought nine medals of the World Championship in their hometown.
After returning from Arabia, I
won the Georgian U-20 Championship, and at the end of the year, I took third
place in the national championship after the winner of the Olympic Games Anton
Plesnoy and the three-time world champion in youth Irakli Chkheidze. All this
is the merit of my trainer - Zurab Centauri. I remember so many good things
from him over the years, which probably would have been difficult for his
parents to do. I am grateful for the attention and support of my family
members, our federation, the Olympic Training Center, Zugdidi Municipality, and
Zeda Etseri 15th Abkhazian Public School. I will try
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