Nationality Ukraine Weight 103 kg (227 lb) Event(s) +100 kg | Height 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in) Sport Judo | |
Full name Vitaliy Oleksandovych Polyanskyi Born 26 January 1981 (age 36) ( 1981-01-26 ) Dnipropetrovsk, Ukrainian SSR,
Soviet Union | ||
Vitaliy Oleksandovych Polyanskyi (Ukrainian: Віталій Олександрович Полянський; born January 26, 1981 in Dnipropetrovsk) is a Ukrainian judoka, who competed in the men's heavyweight category. He held two Ukrainian titles in both his own division and the open event, picked up a bronze medal at the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand, and represented his nation Ukraine at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Polyanskyy was selected to the Ukrainian squad in the men's heavyweight class (+100 kg) at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, as a result of the nation's top nine finish in the European Judo Union ranking list. Polyanskyy opened his match with a brilliant ippon victory and an ōuchi gari (big inner reap) over Egypt's Islam El Shehaby, before he fell in his next bout with a waza-ari awasete ippon defeat to Italy's Paolo Bianchessi. With Bianchessi moving forward to the medal podium phase, Polyanskyy gave himself a chance for an Olympic bronze medal through the repechage round, but slipped it away in another heartbreaking defeat to South Korea's Kim Sung-bum by an ippon and a tani otoshi (valley drop) within a halfway time into their first playoff of the draft.