COVID-19

Bureau Announces Change of Dates and Locations for 2021 Championships and Qualifiers

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 22) – The United World Wrestling bureau held a virtual meeting Tuesday to discuss several topics, including an update to the dates and locations of competitions in 2021.

Citing limited interest in a January competition, the bureau voted to move the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series tournament from mid-January to March 4-7.

To help with costs and coordination the bureau also voted to combine the Asian Championships and Olympic Qualifier to Almaty, Kazakhstan with the tournaments set to run back-to-back April 9-17. Similarly, the African & Oceania Qualifier and African Championships are scheduled to be held back-to-back in El Jadida, Morocco from April 2-11. Due to travel concerns surrounding COVID-19 the Oceania continental championships have been cancelled.

Given the large number of expected participants, the European Championships and European Olympic Qualifier will remain at separate locations with the Qualifier scheduled March 18-21 in Budapest and the Championships April 19-25 in Poland.

The World Olympic Qualifier will remain in Sofia but has been moved one week later to May 6-9. The Pan Am Championships in Rio de Janeiro and the Poland Ranking Series events will remain unchanged.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic all competition dates and locations will be subject to change based on the conditions in host countries as well as their ability to meet United World Wrestling’s strict sanitary guidelines for events


Ranking Series Matteo Pellicone
March 4-7 (Rome, ITA)

*European Olympic Games Qualifier
March 18-21 (Budapest, HUN)

*African & Oceania Olympic Games Qualifier
April 2-4 (El Jadida, MAR)

African Championships
April 6-11 (El Jadida, MAR)

*Asian Olympic Games Qualifier
April 9-11 (Almaty, KAZ)

Asian Championships
April 12-17 (Almaty, KAZ)

European Championships
April 19-25 (Warsaw, POL)

*World Olympic Games Qualifier
May 6-9 (Sofia, BUL)

Pan-American Championships
May 27-30 (Rio de Janeiro, BRA)

Ranking Series Poland Open
June 8-13 (Warsaw, POL)

* Denotes Olympic Games Qualifier

 

Wrestling Playlist: Best of Olympic champ Sidakov..

By United World Wrestling Press

Zaurbek SIDAKOV is undoubtedly one of the most clutch wrestlers in the world. From winning gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and the three world titles, Sidakov has again and again won matches in dying seconds.

He managed to beat Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) in thrilling fashion, twice, during his world title runs in 2018 and 2019. He then defeated Kyle DAKE (USA) in a jaw-dropping final at the 2023 World Championships final.

While his 2025 season was marred by injuries, Sidakov still managed to win bronze at the World Championships and silver at the European Championships.

The playlist includes his win over Burroughs, his training at the European Championships and his bout against Chermen VALIEV (ALB).

WATCH THE SIDAKOV PLAYLIST HERE

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