In the decisive fight for the bronze medal, the representative of Lithuania defeated the favorite of the audience, the representative of France, Nathan Petit, who received huge support in the “La Defense” arena.
At the beginning of the duel, the Lithuanian received a warning from the judges, but soon he managed to perform an action that was appreciated by “Waza-Ari” and took the lead. O. Bareikis received another warning, but during the remaining seconds of the duel, he held his ground and jumped into the arms of coach A. Mečkovskis with joy.
Even on the eve of the bronze duel, O. Bareikis and his coach A. Mečkovskis did not hide that N. Petit is an unfavorable opponent for the Lithuanian because of his height. O. Bareikis managed to beat this opponent for the first time.
“I spelled out a single move called Waza-Ari on my opponent and it earned me a victory that cost me a lot of energy. I had to withstand pressure not only from the opponent, but also from the spectators. At the beginning, that crowd was really oppressive, but after that I also heard the support of the Lithuanians when they chanted my name. It motivated me a lot and drove me forward a lot.
For the most part of the fight, I really implemented the trainer’s plan of how to stop the opponent and control the fight. At the end it was already very difficult, there was no strength at all. We discovered some kind of vaccine for him, but I think that this is not the end, that he will try to get revenge on me in the future”, said the winner of the Paris Summer Paralympic Games, tired but in a good mood after the fight.
“The popular cure is anger – to go out and fight like that. I think that the entire arena helped to get started. You could say that Oswald is a hero. As in Tokyo, he did his best. That Frenchman was defeated in both the world and European championships. Thank God, now we are back,” said A. Mečkovskis.
On Friday, O. Bareikis’ first opponent on Friday was South Korean Donghoon Kim, who needed overtime in the opening match to prove his superiority over Spain’s Sergio Ibanez Banon.
The Lithuanian was significantly more active than his opponent from South Korea, but he even needed extra time to get the Waza-Ari rating and be declared the winner of a grueling fight.
In the second fight on the tatami, O. Bareikis faced another representative of Asia, the Japanese Yujiri Seto, who also missed the first fight, and in the second fight he defeated his opponent in a few seconds and thus saved a lot of strength.
The Japanese got the Waza-Ari rating very quickly and took the lead, and soon got the highest rating in the Ippon, which led to the victory over the Lithuanian, who eventually fought for the bronze.
This is the third Paralympic Games in O. Bareikis’ career. The pupil of A. Mečkovskis made his debut in 2016. in Rio de Janeiro, and in 2021 Lithuania won a bronze award in Tokyo.
2024-09-06 21:29:42