Radomir Kovačević ( Serb. Radomir Kovačeviћ / March 20, 1954 , Dvar - June 14, 2006 , Belgrade ) - heavyweight Serbian Yugoslav judoka , played for the national team of Yugoslavia in the second half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. Participant of the three summer Olympic Games, bronze medalist of the Olympic Games in Moscow, bronze medalist of the World and European Championships, champion of the Mediterranean Games, winner and medalist of many tournaments of national importance.
| Radomir Kovachevich | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Citizenship |  Yugoslavia  Serbia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of Birth | March 20, 1954 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of Birth | Drvar , Yugoslavia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | June 14, 2006 (52 years old) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A place of death | Belgrade , Serbia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 193 cm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight category | heavy (100 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Biography
Radomir Kovachevich was born on March 20, 1954 in the city of Dvar , Yugoslavia , his father was a veteran of World War II . At the age of thirteen, he began to seriously engage in athletics , then tried himself in basketball and Greco-Roman wrestling . Finally, in the summer of 1971 he moved to judo - he was trained at Tokai University in Japan.
The first major success in judo at the international level was in the 1976 season, when he joined the main team of the Yugoslav national team and attended the European Championship in Kiev, from where he brought the bronze dignity award won in the open weight category. In addition, this season he competed in two weight categories (heavy and absolute) at the Summer Olympics in Montreal , but could not get into the number of winners in any of the categories.
In 1979, Kovachevich won the heavyweight title at the Mediterranean home games in Split and took bronze in the absolute weight category at the World Championships in Paris. Thanks to a series of successful performances, he was awarded the right to defend the country's honor at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow - this time he defeated the famous Soviet judoka Vitaly Kuznetsov in the 1/8 finals, but lost to the Bulgarian Dimitr Zapryanov at the quarter-finals. Nevertheless, in a reassuring meeting for third place, he won over DPRK representative Kim Myung-gu and thereby won a bronze Olympic medal. He also fought in open weight, but in the first match he was defeated by Olympic champion Angelo Parisi .
After the Moscow Olympics, Radomir Kovachevich remained in the main composition of the judoka team of Yugoslavia and continued to take part in major international tournaments. So, in 1983 he won the international tournament in Italy and received bronze at the Hungarian Cup in Budapest. Being one of the leaders of the Yugoslav national team, he successfully qualified for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , defeated two rivals in the heavyweight division and lost to two rivals, thus taking fifth place in the final protocol. Also this season he performed at the European Championships in Liege, but in the first match lost to the Soviet wrestler Alexei Tyurin . Soon after the end of these competitions he decided to end his career as an athlete.
Subsequently, he worked as a martial arts coach, in particular, for many years he taught judo at a comprehensive school in the United States. He trained judokas at the Spartak club in the Forest Hills area .
In 1985, he played the role of strongman Ursa in the television series of Franco Russia, “ Kamo Gryadeshi” based on the novel of the same name by Henryk Senkevich.
He died on June 14, 2006 in Belgrade after eighteen months of fighting cancer .
Links
- Radomir Kovachevich - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
- Radomir Kovachevich - profile on judoinside.com