#WrestleBucharest

Bullen brims with confidence after third European gold

Saturday, February 17, 2024 - 00:48 By Vinay Siwach

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BUCHAREST, Romania (February 17) -- "Desperation."

Grace BULLEN (NOR) doesn't mince her words when asked about what forced her to switch training base from Norway to Georgia. For the past two years, Bullen has been training in Georgia and former world champion Zurabi IAKOBASHVILI (GEO) has been training her.

"I wanted to be great in wrestling," Bullen said. "I wanted to do good and not quit without knowing that I've done my full potential. And knowing that, it was not hard for me to pack my bag and move to another country."

Since that move, Bullen has changed weight classes, won two World Championships medals and now a European gold medal after four years.

In Bucharest for the European Championships, Bullen claimed her third European Championships gold medal and first since 2020 to continue her impressive return to the mat. Bullen had failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, lost in the first round in the Oslo World Championships and was slowly fading away.

"I needed to be surrounded by people who love what I do as much as I do and see the potential in me as well that I know that I have. Today was the place that you can see that I can do good even though I am not at my 100 [percent]," she said.

Grace BULLEN (NOR)Grace BULLEN (NOR) takes down Luisa NIEMESCH (GER) in the 62kg final. (Photo: UWW / Kadir Caliskan)

On Thursday, Bullen destroyed her opponents with three falls in as many matches. Though there was no fall in the final on Wednesday, she held on to a 5-4 win over Luisa NIEMESCH (GER).

"Luisa is a tough opponent. She wrestled good," she said. "I see how she wrestled in her bracket with good wrestlers.  Everyone knows that I love to attack and love my double legs. So she was very low. It was just for me to be patient with my attacks and just take the easy point instead of doing the risky and big one. Because those can be easy for her to counter and just being on my offense but still not being too passive with my wrestling."

The 62kg final was sort of similar to how Bullen had planned it. She kept her attacks going and even got a stepout. She used her double-leg attacks to score a takedown. It was only towards the end of the match that Neimesch caught her off guard and scored a takedown, exposure and tried a pin. However, it was too little too late.

"All worth it at the end," Bullen said. "It's good to get this type of competition, especially in this important year that we have ahead of us. This is my first competition back after the World Championship last year. So just getting the feeling of being back on the mat and especially in a big competition like this."

Bullen decided to wrestle at the Olympic weight class of 62kg at the World Championships and won a bronze medal which also gave her the Olympic quota for Paris. Now, she has a European title in the same weight class. She now hopes to become an Olympic medalist for Norway in Paris.

"It will be some tough six months," she said. "It's already been tough four years for me just getting to the spot of having a ticket to the Olympics. I'm looking forward to enjoying every moment that I have on the training mat. Then I want to work on the small stuff because I just changed weight class. It's been one year and I've done great things in a new place with new athletes that I haven't wrestled when I'm in this weight class. Just getting the opportunity to feel myself and being the Grace that I know I can be and my coaches have the confidence in me to be. Having that in mind, I think we will do good stuff this year just wrestling-wise."

Vanesa KALADZINSKAYA (AIN)Vanesa KALADZINSKAYA (AIN) denied Jonna MALMGREN (SWE) her third Euro title by winning the 53kg final. (Photo: UWW / Kostadin Andonov)

World silver medalist Vanesa KALADZINSKAYA (AIN) earned her third European title as she won the gold medal at 53kg, denying Jonna MALMGREN (SWE) her third straight European title.

Kaladzinskaya defeated Malmgren 9-6 at the World Championships but was more dominant in Bucharest, beating her 10-2. Malmgren attempted her big throws and caught Kaladzinskaya in an arm spin twice but failed to score any points.

As soon as Kaladzinskaya was put on the activity clock in the first period, she scored a stepout and scored a takedown to lead 3-0 at the break. Malmgren tried hitting an arm spin but Kaladzinskaya blocked it and went behind to get two points. She hit a double-leg takedown to finally score and cut the lead to 5-2.

With 19 seconds left in the bout, Malmgren tried going deep on Kaladzinskaya's leg but she blocked Malmgren middle of the attack and flung Malmgren to her back for four points. While the pin was not secured as the time ran out, Kaladzinskaya won 10-2, securing her third European title.

Iryna KURACHKINA (AIN)Iryna KURACHKINA (AIN) celebrates after beating Evelina NIKOLOVA (BUL) for the 57kg gold medal. (Photo: UWW / Kadir Caliskan)

In a battle of two Tokyo Olympic medalists, Iryna KURACHKINA (AIN) defeated Evelina NIKOLOVA (BUL) 7-2 to claim her third European title as well.

The final was off to a slow start to the final, there was only an activity point awarded to Kurachkina who scored a takedown in the second period. Her powerful snaps would trouble Nikolova as she scored her second takedown, and added a third with an ankle pick to lead 7-0. Kurachkina went a little inactive in the final minute of the final which cost her a stepout and a point for fleeing. But it was not enough to stop her from winning the gold medal at 57kg.

Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR)Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR) won her second straight European title and third overall. (Photo: UWW / Kostadin Andonov)

At 65kg, Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR), who was wrestling a weight class up than last year, also won her third European Championships after she defeated Kateryna ZELENYKH (ROU), a former Ukrainian wrestler in the final.

After a few scrambles in the opening minute, Zelenykh was put on the activity clock and as she tried to a big move on Koliadenko, the Ukrainian blocked the move and scored exposure, getting two points. As the activity period expired, her lead extended to 3-0.

Koliadenko added another takedown to make it 5-0 at the break and a stepout in the second period gave her another point. No more points were scored as Koliadenko won 6-0.

Nesrin BAS (TUR)Nesrin BAS (TUR) stepped up and won the 72kg gold medal for Turkiye. (Photo: UWW / Kostadin Andonov)

Nesrin BAS (TUR) earned her first senior European gold medal, defeating defending champion and home favorite Alexandra ANGHEL (ROU) in a dramatic 72kg final.

Bas blocked Anghel when the Romanian was trying a front roll and then put her back on the mat. The fall was confirmed but Romania challenged as it appeared that the time had expired. A pin can be challenged only for technical reasons such as expiration of time or a foul. The jury confirmed that the fall was called after the time expired. But that delayed the final result as Bas would go on to beat Anghel 5-1.

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RESULTS

53kg
GOLD: Vanesa KALADZINSKAYA (AIN) df. Jonna MALMGREN (SWE), 10-2

BRONZE: Zeynep YETGIL (TUR) df. Sztalvira ORSUS (HUN), 3-1
BRONZE: Maria PREVOLARAKI (GRE) df. Natalia MALYSHEVA (AIN), via fall (6-11)

57kg
GOLD: Iryna KURACHKINA (AIN) df. Evelina NIKOLOVA (BUL), 7-2

BRONZE: Solomiia VYNNYK (UKR) df. Elvira KAMALOGLU (TUR), 10-6
BRONZE: Anhelina LYSAK (POL) df. Mihaela SAMOIL (MDA), via fall

62kg
GOLD: Grace BULLEN (NOR) df. Luisa NIEMESCH (GER), 5-4

BRONZE: Yuliia TKACH (UKR) df. Johanna LINDBORG (SWE), 8-6
BRONZE: Veranika IVANOVA (AIN) df. Birgul SOLTANOVA (AZE), 9-6

65kg
GOLD: Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR) df. Kateryna ZELENYKH (ROU), 6-0

BRONZE: Elis MANOLOVA (AZE) df. Anne NUERNBERGER (GER), 2-1
BRONZE: Irina RINGACI (MDA) df. Kadriye AKSOY (TUR), 10-4

72kg
GOLD: Nesrin BAS (TUR) df. Alexandra ANGHEL (ROU), 5-1

BRONZE: Yuliana YANEVA (BUL) df. Anastasiya ALPYEYEVA (UKR), via inj. def.
BRONZE: Wiktoria CHOLUJ (POL) df. Viktoryia RADZKOVA (AIN), 6-2

marketing, #development

Wiebe inspires next gen at UWW-IIS camp in India

Saturday, February 15, 2025 - 08:21 By Vinay Siwach

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KARNATAKA, India (February 15) -- Erica WIEBE (CAN), the 2016 Rio Olympic champion, usually doesn't take it around but for her India trip, she made sure to pack her gold medal from Rio.

Call it luck, the gold medal turned out to be the highlight of her trip.

In India for a masterclass at the international women's wrestling camp organized by the Inspire Institute of Sport and United World Wrestling, Wiebe got mobbed by 50 young wrestlers as she showed them her medal. Wrestlers from Jordan, Estonia, South Africa, Mauritius, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and hosts India, all part of the camp, wanted to touch it, feel it and may be keep it.

"To see the looks on their faces and in their bodies responding to what it felt like to hold the kind of weight of your dream in your hand, I got emotional with them," Wiebe says. "It was so surreal for me to share the medal with the athletes because it brought me back to where I was at that time, and how it felt like winning an Olympic gold medal was just like this impossible dream that would never happen. It's really important for me to come here and do things like this to remind these women that, these crazy, unimaginable things are real. They can happen and to encourage them to continue to dream big."

No wrestler could walk away without a photo. A few even got emotional as they took the medal in their hands.

"God, I don't know how many times I have dreamt about that in the night," U17 world bronze medalist Lisette BOTTKER (EST) says. "When I got the medal on my hands, I was also trying not to cry but the feeling is awesome."

Maya QUTAISHAT (JOR) adds, "It seemed like the dreams of most of us wrestlers in front of us. Like getting the Olympic gold medal."

UWW and IIS organized the camp for wrestlers from around the world from January 15 to 31. It was hosted by IIS at it's world class facility in Vijayanagar, a township in Ballari district of north Karnataka, India.

Wiebe held a masterclass for the wrestlers along with training sessions with IIS head coach Amir TAVOKKALIAN, a former world silver medalist and Asian champion.

"It's a really amazing development opportunity for a young wrestlers from all around the world," Wiebe said. "There's several nations here, and it's so incredible to see the level of talent and passion of these young athletes. At the camp this week, we've had a number of sessions kind of leveraging different unique styles, having the different countries lead different warmups. We're here at the Inspire Institute of Sport which is a phenomenal world class facility. We don't have anything like this in Canada, there's very few facilities like this in the world. It's really exciting to see that India has this.

"Not only that, they have this for their athletes training, but they've invited many countries around the world to share in this moment and to leverage the resources that are available here on this site."

IIS President Manisha MALHOTRA also visited the camp and threw some light on the partnership with UWW to grow the sport.

"We're very passionate about the sport from an Indian ecosystem point of view," Malhotra said. "But what we realized is that, we need to start looking outside India to bring in expertise, look in partnerships. With that in mind, I think there was no better partner than UWW.

"They’ve done a phenomenal job with wrestling worldwide and growing the sport very well. The idea was to have a very good mix of people, whether they are from a very developed wrestling nation or from an underdeveloped wrestling nation, it needs to be a common platform where people can extract some sort of benefit for everybody. That was the main premise with what we worked with."

Apart from the training, wrestlers at the camp used the high performance center at IIS and indulged in sightseeing.

"Training here is very strong. We come out of the mat sweating a lot, and it's very tough," Qutaishat said, "The girls here are very high level. When I wrestle them, I learn a lot of techniques and so many things that I usually don't see back in my country. But I get to explore more as I go out to the camps."

Wiebe had an advice for all wrestlers, especially coming from smaller countries to the development camps.

"I told the athletes the goals are: to have fun, and to get better," Wiebe said. "And how do you do that? You find strength on the edge of failure. You have to put yourself on the line. Wrestling is not easy. You see it on the athletes bodies. They're pushing themselves to their limits, physically and mentally. They are tired. I remember being that way as an athlete. You always have to find another level to yourself."