Beach wrestling, beach, World Championships, Pakistan, gold medal, oil wrestling

Beach Wrestling World Champ’s Delivers High-Flying, Fan-Friendly Action

Monday, October 30, 2017 - 12:33 By Tim Foley

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DALYAN, Turkey (October 24) – Muscular bodies and postcard sunsets met with top-level international wrestling and sprays of sand last week on the beaches of Dalyan, Turkey as United World Wrestling hosted the 2017 Beach Wrestling World Championships.

The championships were a celebration of the sport’s reemergence around the globe and the kickoff event for what the wrestling body believes will be the next big global sports phenomenon.

“Beach wrestling is an exciting area of development for our organization,” boasted United World Wrestling president Nenad Lalovic. “The appeal is right there for everyone to see. We are in the sun, and wrestlers are very fit people so when they compete everything is pleasing to the spectators no matter how much they know about wrestling.”

Wrestlers in the Cadet, Junior and Senior age groups competed in a total of 20 weight categories across the three-day event. Iran, Ukraine and Pakistan all took home gold medals in men’s beach wrestling, while Norway and Italy proved to be the dominant powers on the women’s side.

Beach wrestling is an especially appealing competition style for wrestlers from nations like Pakistan, India, Vietnam and dozens in Africa since their local styles are very similar. With constant growth Mr. Lalovic and others believe that the sport will help wrestling reach millions more young wrestlers and continue growing interest in the Olympic styles as well.

“Beach wrestling has a lot of potential. We want to see it in more countries in 2018 and are planning for a new event series to make sure that we inspire our young athletes to get out and be active in our sport,” said Lalovic.

The Beach Wrestling World Championships latched on to local excitement for oil wrestling and held a joint event on the final day of wrestling, combining the men’s freestyle 90kg and +90kg finals with a Turkish Oil Wrestling competition. Known as “yagli gures” the sport dates back more than a thousand years and holds an annual championship known as “Kirkpinar” which attracts more than 100,000 fans and is considered the longest continually running athletic event in history.

With big eyes for the future, beach wrestling will expand its offerings in 2018 with a tentatively approved global tour of five cities capped by an annual prize event.

For more information on beach wrestling and more follow United World Wrestling on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and on our homepage.

Men’s Senior Beach Wrestling

Men’s 70kg

GOLD:  RADULOV SEMEN (UKR) df. Mohammad NADERI (IRI), 3-2 
BRONZE:  Veli YANTIR (TUR) df. Michael PETERS (USA), 4-2 
BRONZE:  Aimar ANDRUSE (EST) df. Arouzmanidis NIKO (GRE), 2-1 

Men’s 80kg

GOLD: Sayed Jafar GHASEMI (IRI) df. Omid Hassan TABAR JELODAR (IRI), 3-0 
BRONZE: Serkan CAVUSOGLU (TUR) df. VELIKSAR SERGII (UKR), 1-0 

Men’s 90kg

GOLD:  Muahammad Inam (PAK) df. Pejman Fazlollah TABAR NAGHRACHI (IRI), 2-1 
BRONZE:  Pavlidis THEODOSIOS (GRE) df. Petridis CHRISTOS (GRE), 3-0 
BRONZE:  Savvinov PLATON (RUS) df. Kerimkulov CHYNGYZ (KGZ), 3-0 

Men’s 90kg+

GOLD:  Pouga RAHMANI (IRI) df. Hakan AYDOGAN (TUR), 3-0 
BRONZE:  Ivanov FEDOR (RUS) df. Kargiotakis IOANNIS (GRE), 2-2 
BRONZE:  Engin DAGLI (TUR) df. GABRIEL ARMAND (USA), 2-0 

Senior Women’s Beach Wrestling

Women’s 60kg

GOLD: Francesca INDELICATO (ITA) df. CHRISTINA DEMIRKAN (GRE), 4-0 
BRONZE: Florine SCHEDLER (AUT) df. Nadir UGURUN PERCIN (TUR), 2-0 

Women’s 70kg

GOLD: Charlotte SKAVNER (NOR)
SILVER: Cesilie MAGNUSEN (NOR)
BRONZE: Meral KAYA (TUR)

Women’s 70kg+

GOLD: Cathrine FRILSETH (NOR) df. Pesnille ROJAR (NOR), 4-0 
BRONZE: Pistiava AIKATERINI EIRIR (GRE) df. F Zehra KANLIADA (TUR), 3-0  
Gallery
Beach Wrestling World Championships Dalyan

Development

Successful Level 1 Coaching Course held in Bulgaria

Wednesday, November 6, 2024 - 12:26 By United World Wrestling Press

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PAZARDZHIK, Bulgaria (November 6) – The Bulgarian Wrestling Federation organized a Level 1 Coaching course to help improve and provide training for their coaches.  This 5-day course was held in conjunction with Olympic Solidarity, Bulgarian Olympic Committee and United World Wrestling. 

The Level 1 course was led by UWW Certified Educator Mr. Georgi Sredkov (BUL).

The course was held from 15-20 October and was attended by 40 coaches and 6 athletes. “I point to my many years of experience to emphasize that, from a professional point of view, the seminar held by G. Sredkov was indeed at a very high professional level, with enormous benefit for all participants and especially for young coaches. The selection of the topics and issues in the sport of wrestling, the arrangement of the topics and the inclusion of free discussions submitted by the participants, greatly increases the quality and effect of this seminar.” said Mr. Georgi Kalchev (European Champion and World Medalist). 

This course focuses on the foundational skills to be a great coach.  The topics included: key factor analysis, introducing new techniques, communication skills, improving coaching skills, risk management and safety, and athlete safeguarding.  The participants learned and practiced their skills through theoretical and practical evaluations throughout the course. “Thanks to Georgi Sredkov for the seminar. Everything he offered us in the seminar was completely useful and beneficial.” said Emil Budinov (Olympic Coach).

Additional Comments from Participants

“My participation was extremely useful for me as a coach. We exchanged experiences and I learned new practices with which I can upgrade my coaching activity.” – Miroslav Geshev (European Medalist and National Coach)

“I am personally very pleased that I had the opportunity to attend this seminar. I managed to learn many interesting things that will be useful for the development of our wrestling.” – Georgi Dumkov (Club Coach)

“Thanks for the fruitful seminar, especially the way of presentation. Special thanks to Georgi Sredkov - 5-day seminar full of content, excellently structured - balance between theory and practice.” – Vasil Popov (European Champion)