The first opponent of O. Bareikis was the South Korean Donghoon Kim, who needed an extra time in the starting duel to prove his superiority over the Spaniard 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 energy.
The Japanese very quickly received the Waza-Ari rating and took the lead, and soon he also received the highest rating of the Ippon, leading to a victory over the Lithuanian, who will participate in the final part and fight for the bronze medal. The opponent will be French judo wrestler Nathan Petit.
“A lot was determined by the first fight. Oswald met the Korean for maybe the fifth time, he always has to suffer. In terms of pure fight time, this would probably result in a double fight. A lot of physical and psychological strength has been given away. As for the Japanese, he is number one in the world ranking. We were missing something with the Japanese. Maybe he’s just a higher level athlete. In addition, in the first fight, like Oswald, he rested, and in the second fight he got almost the weakest opponent. The Japanese came to the fight with Oswald very fresh and not tired.
We will look for medicine in the fight for bronze against the Frenchman. He’s at a disadvantage to Oswald because he’s 10-20 centimeters taller, and Oswald always has a hard time fighting those tall guys. This means that we automatically have to go into a defensive stance, as the taller opponent makes the “take” from above. Well, the weight is still the same for both. Both have one head, two arms, two legs. Happiness is stronger. I hope it will be Osvalds”, said O. Bareikis’ coach A. Mečkovskis after the morning part of the competition.
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.
On Friday, another athlete of the Lithuanian Paralympic team, Donatas Dundzys, started in Paris, who competed in the F37 disability class discus throwing competition at the Stade de France stadium. Alytiškis flew the discus 44 meters 45 centimeters in the third attempt and set a personal record for this season. However, this was not enough for the student of Jonos Baltrušaitis to be among the eight strongest. Lithuania remained 10th.
2024-09-06 12:18:44