Mikheil Kajaia

Mikheil Kajaia

Personal information
Born	21 July 1989 (1989-07-21) (age 35) Tskaltubo, Georgian SSR, USSR
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Weight	97 kg (214 lb)
Sport
Country	Georgia (2010–2017) Serbia (2017–)
Sport	Wrestling
Event	Greco-Roman
Medal record Men's Greco-Roman wrestling Representing Serbia World Championships 2018 Budapest 97 kg 2019 Nur-Sultan 97 kg European Championships 2018 Kaspiysk 97 kg Mediterranean Games 2018 Tarragona 97 kg Representing Georgia Summer Universiade 2013 Kazan 96 kg

Mikheil Kajaia (Georgian: მიხეილ ქაჯაია; Serbian Cyrillic: Михаил Каџаја; Serbian: Mihail Kadžaja) is a Georgian-born Serbian Greco-Roman wrestler.

Career

Representing Georgia, Kajaia participated in the 2013 Summer Universiade and he won the bronze medal in the 96 kg event. He was part of the Georgian Wrestling Team at the 2015 European Games but lost to Italian Daigoro Timoncini at the 1/8 finals.

In 2017, Kajaia started to wrestle for Serbia. He entered the 2017 European Wrestling Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia but defeated by the Olympic champion Artur Aleksanyan in the second round. One year later, he won his first European medal, a silver, in Kaspiysk, Russia. He reached the final at 97 kg but lost to Artur Aleksanyan again with a score of 0-7. At the 2018 Mediterranean Games in Tarragona, Spain, he lost to the eventual champion, Frenchman Mélonin Noumonvi, in the semifinals but still successfully grabbed a bronze medal. Kajaia later won his first world bronze medal in Budapest, Hungary. In the bronze-medal match, Kajaia faced former world champion and home favourite Balázs Kiss. Kajaia trailed 0-3 after the first period but managed a turnaround by winning on criteria with a four-point arm throw.