Full name Irakli Chochua Club Tshevardani Tbilisi Weight 60 kg Style Greco-Roman Height 1.65 m | Sport Wrestling Name Irakli Chochua Nationality Georgia Coach Villiam Kharazov | |
Born 15 September 1979 (age 44) ( 1979-09-15 ) Poti, Georgian SSR,
Soviet Union | ||
Irakli Chochua (Georgian: ირაკლი ჭოჭუა; born September 15, 1979 in Poti) is a retired amateur Georgian Greco-Roman wrestler, who competed in the men's featherweight category. He claimed a silver medal in the 54-kg division at the 2001 European Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, and later represented his nation Georgia at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Chochua also trained for Tshevardani Wrestling Club in Tbilisi, under his personal coach Villiam Kharazov.
Chochua qualified for the Georgian wrestling squad in the men's 55 kg class at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by receiving a berth and placing fourth from the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro. He upset Turkish wrestler and two-time Olympian Ercan Yıldız with a striking 4–1 decision on his opening bout, and then overpowered Lithuania's Svajūnas Adomaitis to earn a coveted spot in the quarterfinals. Fighting against Ukraine's Oleksiy Vakulenko in his knockout match, Chochua could not score two more points to push him off the mat with a score 12–14, before he faced a fifth-place battle with Cuba's Lázaro Rivas and then fell short from the ring by a technical superiority rule.