#UWWAwards

Deng and Olli Among History Makers of the Year Recipients

Sunday, December 16, 2018 - 15:38 By Eric Olanowski

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 15) -- United World Wrestling has named China’s DENG Zhiwei, Finland’s Petra OLLI, and Russia’s Greco-Roman world team the History Makers of the Year award.

Deng Zhiwei captured a silver medal at the 2018 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary and became China’s first-ever freestyle world medalist. Prior to the 2018 World Championships, China had reached the bronze medal match four times and failed to win a bronze in each of those four matches.

Deng’s road to finals was sparked by a 4-1 opening round victory over Canada’s 2014 junior world champion, Amarveer DHESI. In the quarterfinals, the Chinese big-man outlasted defending world bronze medalist, Nicholas GWIAZDOWSKI (USA), 5-4. In the semifinals, Deng rolled pasted India’s Sumit SUMIT, 5-0, securing his spot in the Chinese wrestling record books.

After his semifinals win over Sumit, Deng said, “I’m always having dreams about wrestling, and I’ve dedicated my life to the sport for the past 16 years…Now I get to bring honor to my country.”

Deng ultimately fell short in the finals, dropping the 125kg gold-medal bout to Georgia’s two-time world champion, Geno PETRIASHVILI.

In women’s wrestling, Petra OLLI (FIN) improved on her 2015 World Championships silver medal finish when she avenged her Poland Open finals loss and hung on to beat Canada’s Danielle LAPPAGE, 6-5. Olli’s final win at 65kg granted Finland their first-ever women’s wrestling gold medal and first world title since Marko YLI-HANNUKSELA (FIN) won Greco-Roman gold at the 1997 Wroclaw, Poland World Championships.

In addition to her gold medal at the World Championships, Olli also won titles at the Klippan Lady Open, the International Ukrainian Tournament, and the European Championships.

In Greco-Roman, Russia made history by winning six of ten possible gold medals. Russia’s 2018 Greco-Roman team outdid their fellow countrymen who set the gold medal record when they won five world titles in 1994. The six Russian wrestlers who won gold medals in Budapest were Sergey EMELIN (60kg), Stepan MARYANYAN (63kg), Artem SURKOV (67kg), Aleksandr CHEKHIRKIN (77kg), Musa EVLOEV (97kg), and Sergey SEMENOV (125kg).

The Russian Federation finished the 2018 World Championships with a record of 37-6. Of those six Russian defeats, their opponents went on to win two golds and four bronze medals.

The next award to be released is the Biggest Rivalries of the Year award. That'll come out on Wednesday. 
 

#WrestleSamokov

Stanich proves doubters wrong, wins U20 world title

Wednesday, August 20, 2025 - 13:58 By Vinay Siwach

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SAMOKOV, Bulgaria (August 18) -- Luke STANICH (USA) is aware that many did not back him to make the U.S. team, forget about winning a medal in international tournament.

"I love it," Stanich said. "If you have to prove everyone wrong, I feel great. I've always been doubted at tournaments. Even after I won the tournament, the U.S. Open, people still didn't have me making the team. I've been dealing with this forever, but just motivation, just to prove people wrong."

Stanich proved many doubters wrong by winning the gold medal at 65kg at the U20 World Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria on Tuesday. In the final, Stanich kept an inspired Reiji UCHIDA (JPN) under control and won 4-3 to claim the world title.

Uchida brought the Japanese style of wrestling with constant leg attacks but Stanich had all the answered and scored two takedowns to remain in control of the final

"I knew it was my match to wrestle," he said. "He was strong and quick, but I knew what kind of attacks he was looking for. I had confidence in my offense and my defense."

Perhaps it was his confidence that helped him recover from an 8-0 deficit in his first bout against Abdullah TOPRAK (TUR) and make a run to win the gold medal. Toprak scored a takedown and gut-wrenched Stanich three times to lead 8-0 and put all his effort into a fourth turn. However, Stanich defend that and rallied to beat a tired Toprak 18-8.

In his next match, Stanich managed to hold off 2024 world U17 champion  Omurbek ASAN UULU (KGZ), 9-3, and then had a close 3-3 win over Alessandro NINI (ITA) in the quarterfinals. He had European U20 and U23 champion Amal DZHANDUBAEV (UWW) in the semifinals but a solid defense helped him win 3-1 and enter the final.

"I said that right after the first match ended," he said. "I was like, 'wow! Once I go on this run and win this tournament, it can be pretty crazy story to tell that I was down 8-0 in the very first match, the tournament. I came back to win it.

"Super proud of my effort and able to storm back like that and get on the top podium."

Stanich said that standing on top of the podium was one of the most memorable moments of his career and called his run as 'gritty'.

"Gritty, being tough and breaking people."

Another U.S. wrestler in the final, William HENCKEL (USA), was not able to complete his campaign with a gold medal after dropping the final 8-6 against returning bronze medalist and senior Asian champion Mahdi YOUSEFI (IRI).

Henckel was leading the final bout but Yousefi scored a stepout to make a 4-3 lead. Yousefi scored two stepouts and a takedown while Henckel scored three stepouts and a caution against Yousefi who  defended his lead in the last 30 seconds.

This was the first gold medal for Iran in this World Championships.

At 57kg, Magomed OZDAMIROV (UWW) survived a strong Sumit MALIK (IND) and won the gold medal 8-5. Ozdamirov needed a few medical timeouts to regain his breath against Malik, who could not finish even one of his attempted takedowns.

Uzbekistan won gold medal at the World U20 Championships after three years as Asian U20 champion Sherzod POYONOV (UZB) scored a takedown during his activity time to beat returning bronze medalist Kamil KURUGLIYEV (KAZ), 3-2, in the 92kg final.

Incidentally, the last time an Uzbekistan wrestler won gold at World U20s was also in Bulgaria when Umidon JALOLOV (UZB) won 65kg gold medal in 2022.

RESULTS

57kg
GOLD: Magomed OZDAMIROV (UWW) df. Sumit MALIK (IND), 8-5

BRONZE: Vasif BAGHIROV (AZE) df. Ion BULGARU (MDA), 8-2
BRONZE: Nurdanat AITANOV (KAZ) df. Baiaman KERIMBEKOV (KGZ), 11-0

65kg
GOLD: Luke STANICH (USA) df. Reiji UCHIDA (JPN), 4-3

BRONZE: Arman MUSIKYAN (ARM) df. Viktor BOROHAN (UKR), 4-0
BRONZE: Abdullah TOPRAK (TUR) df. Amal DZHANDUBAEV (UWW), 14-10

79kg
GOLD: Mahdi YOUSEFI (IRI) df. William HENCKEL (USA), 8-6

BRONZE: Said SAIDULOV (UWW) df. Ion MARCU (MDA), 11-0
BRONZE: Davit TCHETCHELASHVILI (GEO) df. AMIT (IND), 9-6

92kg
GOLD: Sherzod POYONOV (UZB) df. Kamil KURUGLIYEV (KAZ), 3-2

BRONZE: Connor MIRASOLA (USA) df. Anar JAFARLI (AZE), 10-0
BRONZE: Gadzhimurad GADZHIBATYROV (UWW) df. Sorato KANAZAWA (JPN), 15-5