#development

Baattiah first female member of Saudi Wrestling's board

Sunday, June 12, 2022 - 11:36 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (June 10) -- In a significant step forward for women’s wrestling in Saudi Arabia as well as the United World Wrestling’s push for gender equality, Amal BAATTIAH has been elected as the first female member of the Saudi Arabian Wrestling Federation’s executive board.

Baattiah’s election is part of the wider strategy for wrestling in Saudi Arabia, which has witnessed rapid growth in the last few years thanks to the support and cooperation between the Saudi Wrestling Federation and UWW.

It also underlines the importance of the UWW’s development programs, which are providing immediate results in improving gender equality in wrestling. Baattiah was a participant in the Women Lead Sports Master Program, which was spearheaded by world-renowned expert Gabriela Mueller.

The Women Lead Sports Master Program has been designed to empower participants to shape the future of wrestling as a global sport, learn effective leadership strategies and techniques, and increase a diverse leadership talent pool within all levels at the UWW.

Baattiah graduated from the program in January 2022. And earlier this month, she broke the glass ceiling by becoming the first woman to get elected to the Saudi Arabian Wrestling Federation board. Her election marks another landmark moment for the development of the sport in Saudi Arabia.

In the last few years, with support from the UWW, the country has taken important initiatives to educate its coaches and referees, developed infrastructure and focussed on the grassroots.

Since 2017, the Saudi Arabian Wrestling Federation has held coaching and refereeing courses every year, except for the break forced by the pandemic. These courses were held under the supervision of UWW-certified educators.

In January 2021, the first-ever introduction to refereeing course was conducted for women and later that year, in December, a similar course for women coaches was organized.

Olympic bronze medalists Marwa AMRI (TUN) and Clarissa CHUN (USA) attend the introduction of coaches course in Saudi Arabia, (Photo: United World Wrestling)

The country’s wrestlers have also been a part of the UWW’s More than Medals program every year for the last five years. As much as sporting skills, the workshop teaches the wrestlers life skills, which help them prepare for a career after sport.

At the same time, there have been constant efforts to improve the wrestling infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian Wrestling Federation established three training centres in 2015 and one in 2018. These centers are situated in Riyadh, Dammam, Makkah and Jeddah. Over the years, the UWW has donated six wrestling mats to Saudi Arabia while the national federation has imported four more mats. In the first six months of this year, 10 new mats have already arrived in Riyadh.

On the administrative front, Saudi Arabian Wrestling Federation President Fahad ALFARRAJ was elected as a vice-president of the Arab Wrestling Federation.

All these developmental activities have shown results on the mat.

Wrestlers from Saudi Arabia participated in the World Championships for the first time in 2017. It was also the first-ever world-level participation by the country’s wrestlers since 1980.

Since then, Saudi wrestlers have been a constant presence at junior and senior international tournaments and have started to make their presence felt on the podium as well. In 2019, the country won a bronze medal at the World School Combat Games in Budapest. In the same year, four Saudi Arabian wrestlers won bronze medals at the U15 Asian Championships in Chinese Taipei.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia won its first-ever Arab Championship gold medal, with five wrestlers finishing on top of the podium at the U17 and U20 Arab Championship in Makkah. Saudi Arabia was ranked second in the championship where 12 Arab countries participated.

In 2023, Saudi Arabia will host the U17 and U23 Asian Championship and will also host the Arab Championships for both age groups for the first time ever.

#WrestleTirana

World Championships: Sadulaev tops two world champs en route 92kg final

Wednesday, October 30, 2024 - 17:14 By Ken Marantz

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TIRANA, Albania (October 30) -- The paths of two of the greatest wrestlers of the past decade-plus crossed for the first and only time, and it was Abdulrashid SADULAEV (AIN) who swatted aside David TAYLOR (USA) to stay on course for a sixth world medal.

Sadulaev put up an impregnable defense in posting a 7-0 victory after the luck of the draw pitted the superstars against each other in the first round at freestyle 92kg at the Non-Olympic Weight Categories World Championships on Wednesday in Tirana.

Two-time Olympic champion Sadulaev, who was left off the list of Russian and Belarussian wrestlers eligible for the Paris Olympics, later advanced to Thursday's final with a dramatic, last-second 5-3 victory over 2021 and 2022 world champion Kamran GHASEMPOUR (IRI).

Two other big names in the tournament did not fare so well, as Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) saw his bid for a seventh career world title end with a quarterfinal loss at 79kg, while Tokyo Olympic and two-time world champion Zavur UGUEV (AIN) fell at the first hurdle at 61kg.

In the most anticipated match of the tournament, Sadulaev was content to sit back and let Taylor go on the offensive, fending off each attack and twice scoring go-behind takedowns, while also adding a counter lift for 2. He also scored a stepout, but otherwise made no legitimate tackle attempts.

The closest Taylor came to scoring came on his first shot, when he got in deep on a single and tried to come out the back door, only for the surprisingly nimble Sadulaev to escape the hold.

Sadulaev and Taylor both won Olympic golds at Tokyo 2021, at 97kg and 86kg, respectively, and Wednesday's match saw them meeting in the middle. It's the first time Sadulaev is wrestling below 97kg since moving up to that weight after winning the 86kg gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Taylor, who won his third world title in 2023 but retired after losing at the U.S. Olympic Trials to Aaron BROOKS (USA), had taken the head coaching job at powerhouse Oklahoma State University but returned to the mat for one last go-round.

Sadulaev followed up his win over Taylor by beating Aslan ABAKAROV (AZE) 3-1 and Lars SCHAEFLE (GER) by a 10-0 technical fall to set up his clash with Ghasempour that turned into another classic victory by the Russian great.

Sadulaev had gone ahead 1-1 on criteria after each received an activity point when Ghasempour finally broke through the defenses and scored a double-leg takedown with 30 seconds left. But with the final seconds ticking down, he snapped the Iranian down, spun behind, then managed to fling him to the mat for a 4-point takedown.

In the final, he will face 2022 world bronze medalist Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO), who won an at-times tempestuous semifinal over surprising Benjamin HONIS (ITA) 9-2.

At 79kg, the 36-year-old Burroughs was unable to turn back the clock and fell 6-4 in the quarterfinals to Asian champion and two-time world medalist Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI).

Burroughs' hopes for a 10th world medal overall, however, ended when Nokhodi was dealt a tough 14-8 loss in the semifinals by four-time European bronze medalist Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO).

Nokhodi looked to be cruising to victory when he built up a 6-0 lead in the second period. But Kentchadze secured a takedown that allowed him to wrap up Nokhodi's legs and he ripped off three lace-lock rolls. Nokhodi halted the flow for a moment for a 2-point exposure, but he also appeared to injure his knee during the exchange and the Georgian was able to easily add a pair of late takedowns.

Kentchadze will look to improve on the silver medal he won at 74kg in 2018 when he faces 2023 and 2021 world U23 champion Magomed MAGOMAEV (AIN), who defeated 2021 European champion Akhsarbek GULAEV (SVK) in the other semifinal.

Earlier, Uguev tumbled out at the hands of world U20 champion Masanosuke ONO (JPN), who rode the momentum of that victory into the 61kg final.

Uguev, seemingly hampered by an ankle injury, had no answer for the lightning-quick speed of Ono, who chalked up two takedown-gut wrench combinations in the first period en route to a 10-2 victory.

Ono never let up after the victory, chalking up three straight technical falls without giving up a point, capped with a dominating 12-0 victory in the semifinals over defending champion Vitali ARUJAU (USA). Ono sealed the victory with a slick 4-point front headlock throw.

In Thursday's final, Ono will face Ahmet DUMAN (TUR), the 2022 world U23 silver medalist at 57kg who edged Tsogbadrakh TSEVEENSUREN (MGL) 3-1 in the other semifinal.

Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) joined Ono -- his former teammate at Yamanashi Gakuin University -- in the gold-medal matches when he avenged a loss in last year's world U23 final to Inalbek SHERIEV (AIN) with a 6-1 victory in the 70kg semifinals.

Aoyagi, who won a bronze at this year's World U23 Championships held last week at the same Tirana venue, will face 2019 world bronze medalist Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ) in an all-Asian final.

Kaipanov rolled to a 13-2 victory over Russian-born Abdulmazhid KUDIEV (TJK), who will still get a chance to become just the second world medalist in any style from Tajikistan.

Freestyle Results

61kg (27 entries)
SF: Ahmet DUMAN (TUR) df. Tsogbadrakh TSEVEENSUREN (MGL), 3-1
SF: Masanosuke ONO (JPN) df. Vitali ARUJAU (USA) by TF, 12-0, 4:20

70kg (25 entries)
SF: Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) df. Inalbek SHERIEV (AIN), 6-1
SF: Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ) df. Abdulmazhid KUDIEV (TJK) by TF, 13-2, 3:47

79kg (33 entries)
SF: Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO) df. Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI), 14-8
SF: Magomed MAGOMAEV (AIN) df. Akhsarbek GULAEV (SVK), 9-3

92kg (29 entries)
SF: Abdulrashid SADULAEV (AIN) df. Kamran GHASEMPOUR (IRI), 5-3
SF: Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO) df. Benjamin HONIS (ITA), 9-2