Cho Incheol ( cor. 조인철 ; March 4, 1976 ) is a South Korean welterweight judoka who played for the South Korean national team in the mid-1990s and early 2000s. The bronze medalist of the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, the silver medalist of the Olympic Games in Sydney, two-time world champion, Asian champion, winner of two silver medals in Asian Championships, two-time champion of the East Asian Games, silver medalist of the Summer Universiade in Fukuoka, winner of many tournaments of national and international significance.
| Cho Incheol | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Citizenship |  The Republic of Korea | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of Birth | March 4, 1976 (aged 43) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Growth | 180 cm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight category | welterweight (up to 81 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Biography
Cho Incheol was born on March 4, 1976.
He achieved his first serious success at the adult international level in 1995, when he joined the main team of the Korean national team and attended the Asian Championships in New Delhi, from where he brought the silver dignity prize won in the welterweight category - he was defeated in the decisive match by the Japanese Makoto Takimoto , the future Olympic champion. In addition, as a student, he went to the summer Universiade in Fukuoka, where he also became a silver medalist, losing in the final to another representative of Japan, Kazunori Kubote .
Thanks to a series of successful performances, Cho won the right to defend the country's honor at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta - in the first three fights he got the better of his rivals, but lost to the Japanese Toshihiko Koge at the stage of the semi-finals. In the consolation match for third place, the Argentinean Gaston won Garcia and thus received a bronze Olympic medal. Also this season he performed at the Asian Championship in Ho Chi Minh City, where he again became a silver medalist, losing in the final to the representative of Uzbekistan Vladimir Shmakov .
In 1997, Cho Inchel won the welterweight title at the East Asian home games in Busan and the World Championships in Paris, where he won the French Olympic champion Diamel Boer in the finals. A year later, he was the best at the Asian Games in Bangkok, a year later he added to the track record a bronze medal received at the world championship in English Birmingham - at the stage of the quarter finals he was defeated by Uzbek Farhod Turaev . Being among the leaders of the judo team of South Korea, he successfully qualified for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games - on the way to the finals he defeated all four opponents, but in the end he met his longtime rival Makoto Takoto and was defeated again, thereby winning the silver Olympic medal.
After the Sydney Olympics, Cho for some time remained in the main team of the Korean national team and continued to take part in major international tournaments. So, in 2001, in the welterweight division, he won the East Asian Games in Osaka and the world championship in Munich, where he defeated in the finals representing Estonia Alexei Budylin , the reigning European champion in this weight division. Soon after the end of these competitions, he decided to end his career as a professional athlete, giving way to young Korean judokas in the national team.
Links
- Cho Incheol - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
- Cho Incheol - profile on judoinside.com