Georgia announces Freestyle World Cup team
Tuesday, November 22, 2022 - 02:48 By Gary Abbott
CORALVILLE, Iowa (November 21) --- The lineups for Georgia, which will compete in Freestyle World Cup, has been released.
The Freestyle and Women’s Wrestling World Cup will be held at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, Dec. 10-11. It is the first time that freestyle and women’s wrestling will be held together side-by-side at the World Cup.
The World Cup is the annual international dual meet championships, conducted by United World Wrestling. The top five teams in freestyle and the top five teams in women’s wrestling from the 2022 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in September have confirmed their participation. There is also an All World Team in each discipline, featuring the top available athlete from the World Championships in each weight class that were not from a nation which qualified for the World Cup.
The Georgia World Cup team will feature five senior world medalists and three others who have been age-group World medalists.
The team is led by three-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist Geno PETRIASHVILI at 125kg. Petriashvili won Senior World titles in 2017, 2018 and 2019. He was a 2020 Olympic silver medalist and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist. Add in a 2021 world silver medal and three world bronze medals (2013, 2015, 2022) and you have one of the best wrestlers in the world today. He also boasts world titles at the U23 and U20 levels.
2017 world champion Zurabi IAKOBIASHVILI will compete at 70kg. Iakobishvili also won three world bronze medals (2018, 2021 and 2022). He was 10th in the 2016 Olympic Games.
Other senior world medalists on the Georgia team include 2016 world silver medalist Beka LOMTADZE (65kg) and a pair of 2022 world bronze medalists, Miriani MAISURADZE (92kg) and Givi MATCHARASHVILI (97kg). Maisuradze was a 2016 U17 World champion and a 2022 U23 World bronze medalist. Matcharashvili won a U23 World title in 2018 and a U17 World title in 2014, plus two other age-group World medals.
Age-group World medalists on the Georgia roster includes 2022 U23 World champion Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (79kg), plus 2019 U23 world bronze medalist Giorgi SULAVA (74kg) and 2015 U20 world bronze medalist Tarzan MAISURADZE (86kg).
Georgia, which placed fifth at the 2022 World Championships in men’s freestyle, will be joined in the World Cup by first place United States, second place Iran, third place Japan and fourth place Mongolia, in addition to the All-World Team.
The rosters of the World Cup teams for the other nations will be announced over the next week by USA Wrestling.
Ticket packages for the 2022 Men’s and Women’s Wrestling World Cup are currently on sale. The seating capacity for Xtream Arena for the World Cup will be approximately 5,300. Ticket packages include a Gold package for $275, Silver package for $200 and All-Session tickets for $90.
A special Presentation of Teams and Team USA Meet & Greet will also be held on Friday, December 9 at 6:45 p.m. It is free and open to the public.
Men’s and Women’s Wrestling World Cup tickets -> https://worldcupiowacity.com/tickets/
Georgia Freestyle World Cup team
57 kg – Beka Bujiashvili
61 kg – Teimuraz VANISHVILI
65 kg – Beka LOMTADZE
70 kg – Zurabi IAKOBIASHVILI
74 kg – Giorgi SULAVA
79 kg – Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE
86 kg – Tarzan MAISURADZE
92 kg – Miriani MAISURADZE
97 kg – Givi MATCHARASHVILI
125 kg – Geno PETRIASHVILI
Lucia YEPEZ (ECU) will compete for the first time since winning the silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)
Agustin DESTRIBATS (ARG) is one of the favorites to win gold at 65kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / William Bain)
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