#BuchaWrestU23

Japan and Georgia Claim Two Champions in 2018 U23 World Men's Freestyle

By Taylor Miller

Photo of Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO) by Martin Gabor. 

BUCHAREST, Romania – The first five men’s freestyle 2018 U23 World champions were determined on Saturday night in Bucharest, Romania, with Japan and Georgia each claiming two champions.

Japan started the night with back-to-back gold medals, coming from Toshihiro HASEGAWA (JPN) at 57 kg and Rei HIGUCHI (JPN) at 65 kg.

Hasegawa, a 2013 Cadet World bronze medalist, went up 4-0 halfway through the first period against Kumar RAVI (IND) before locking up a cradle and getting the pin at the 2:08 mark.

2016 Olympic silver medalist Higuchi edged out 2018 Yasar Dogu runner-up Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE) in 5-4 battle. Rahimzade rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie the score as the clock ran out, but Higuchi held criteria. Azerbaijan’s corner challenged, looking for a fleeing call, but lost the challenge, resulting in another point for Higuchi.

Georgia ended the night with back-to-back World champions as Nika KENTCHADZE (GEO) and Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO) were victorious in their gold-medal matches.

Kentchadze won the crown at 79 kg, defeating 2015 Junior World champion Gadzhi NABIEV (RUS).

In the final bout of the night, Matcharashvili dominated Kollin MOORE (USA), scoring 10 points in two sequences for a first-period technical fall and his second age-group World title.

Matcharashvili won a Cadet World championship in 2014 and also owns a 2017 Junior World silver and a 2013 Cadet World bronze.

At 70 kg, Taimuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) dominated 2017 Junior World champion and 2014 Cadet World champion David BAEV (RUS) for gold, scoring four takedowns en route to a 9-1 victory.

Finals results

57 kg
GOLD: Toshihiro HASEGAWA (JPN) df. Kumar RAVI (IND), fall
BRONZE: Wanhao ZOU (CHN) df. Jack Michael MUELLER (USA), 11-9
BRONZE: Taras MARKOVYCH (UKR) df. Jahongirmirza TUROBOV (UZB), 11-6 

65 kg
GOLD: Rei HIGUCHI (JPN) df. Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE), 5-4
BRONZE: Maxim SACULTAN (MDA) df. Roman ASHARIN (HUN), 7-2
BRONZE: Islam DUDAEV (RUS) df. Morteza Hassanali GHIASI CHEKA (IRI), 6-0

70 kg
GOLD: Taimuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) df. David BAEV (RUS), 9-1
BRONZE: Enes USLU (TUR) df. Ramazon IBODOV (UZB), 4-2
BRONZE: Jintaro MOTOYAMA (JPN) df. Oleksii BORUTA (UKR), 9-2 

79 kg
GOLD: Nika KENTCHADZE (GEO) df. Gadzhi NABIEV (RUS), 3-0
BRONZE: Dovletmyrat ORAZGYLYJOV (TKM) df. Isa SHAPIEV (UZB), 13-3
BRONZE: Omaraskhab NAZHMUDINOV (ROU) df. Yajuro YAMASAKI (JPN), 9-8

97 kg
GOLD: Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO) df. Kollin MOORE (USA), 10-0
BRONZE: Igor OVSIANNIKOV (RUS) df. Magamed ZAKARIIEV (UKR), 6-0
BRONZE: Ali Khalil SHABANIBENGAR (IRI) df. Chaoqiang YANG (CHN), 11-0

Team results
1. Russia – 76
2. Japan – 75
3. Georgia – 58
4. USA – 50
5. Ukraine – 35

 

#UnitedWorldWrestling

Good governance at UWW: most women ITOs at Paris 2024, reserved seats in Bureau

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (July 11) -- United World Wrestling will send its highest number of female International Technical Officers (ITOs) to Paris 2024. This marks a significant jump with 22 percent of the total wrestling ITOs for Paris 2024 begin women.

Continuing its efforts towards gender balance, UWW will send 11 ITOs to Paris, the most in wrestling history at the Olympic Games. The first female ITO in wrestling at the Olympics was back in 1988 at the Seoul Olympics.

In another significant move, UWW amended its constitution to reserve two more seats for women in the Bureau, thereby bringing the minimum number of women Bureau members to five. The number of vice presidents was also increased from the current number of five to six, including a minimum of two women vice presidents.

These steps were in line with the good governance that UWW strives for in its work. The results of the past efforts are reflected in the fifth governance report of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations published last month.

UWW moved from Group B to Group A2 in the ASOIF report, scoring 188 points out of a maximum of 240 points and progressed since the last review, moving up one group.

The ASOIF also used UWW's example to demonstrate good ways to showcase organizational structure, allowances and benefits in finance, the conduct of elections, announcing of open positions, competition law compliance, appeal process and data protection and IT security.

UWW was one of the 32 International Federations that participated in the study which includes five sections -- transparency, integrity, democracy, development and sustainability and control mechanisms.

Each of these sections is further divided into 12 indicators and the ASOIF scores each IF based on these indicators.

The first review of IFs was conducted in 2016-17. In the latest review, all 32 IFs exceeded the target of 150 out of 240, and most saw their score on the 50 retained indicators increase by a meaningful amount.