Ruzhdi Ruzhdi

Ruzhdi Ruzhdi (Template:Lang-bg) is a Bulgarian Paralympian track and field athlete, competing in throwing events: javelin throw, shot put, discus throw. He represents Bulgaria at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, winning the golden medal in shot put in class F55, setting a new world record of 12.33 m.

Biography

Ruzhdi Ruzhdi was born on 14 April 1991 in the small northeastern town of Glodzhevo, Bulgaria. When he was 17, he survived a car crash, but was left paralysed waist down. During balneotherapy rehabilitation procedures in Pavel Banya, Ruzhdi met Daniela Todorova and her brother and trainer Radoslav Todorov, who spotted his sports talent.

In October 2015, Ruzhdi Ruzhdi won the golden medal in shot put, category F55, at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships. His result was 11.81 m, which was a new championship record.

In June 2016, at the IPC Athletics European Championships in Grossetto, Italy, Ruzhdi won golden medal in the discus throwing discipline, category F56, with the result of 39.33 m, which was 9 cm away fro mthe world record that belonged to another Bulgarian Paralympic athlete Mustafa Yuseinov, who won the bronze in the same event with result of 37.24 m. At the same championship, Ruzhdi won his second European golden medal with his result in shot put, 12.04 m, which improved the previous world record hold by Martin Němec (11.85 m).

At the Paralympic games in Rio in 2016, Ruzhdi won the golden medal in shot put, category F55, improving his world record from Grossetto to 12.33 m. Ruzhdi records this result at his first throw, and in three other attempts his results were better than the previous world record, namly: 12.22 m, 12.19 m, and 12.12 m. In the discus throwing event, Ruzhdi ranked sixth with best result of 38.04 m.