Euro

London 2012 Silver Medalist Lorincz Books Ticket to Rio at European OG Qualifier

By William May

ZRENJANIN, Serbia (April 15) – London 2012 silver medalist Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) booked his ticket to a third Olympic Games on Friday with a semifinal victory on the opening day of the European Olympic Games qualifying tournament in north central Serbia.

The three-time European champion snared a 6-4 triumph over European Games bronze medalist Dominik ETLINGER (CRO) in the 66kg semifinals in Greco-Roman to secure a berth for Hungary in Rio de Janiero this summer.

“It feels great to be going to the Olympics for a third time,” Lorincz said, adding with a wry smile “This is definitely my last Olympics – at 66kg.”

Much of Lorincz’s success the last two years, including two of his European titles, has come at the non-Olympic weight category of 71kg, while he has missed the medals podium on two of his last three trips to the world championships at 66kg.

With a ticket to Rio hanging in the balance in his bout with Etlinger, Lorincz appeared to be guilty of a false start in par terre making the score 4-4 with one minute remaining. A video review, however, resulted in a reversed call and a 6-2 lead for Lorincz.

“I thought it was about 50-50 that the challenge would be successful, but I trust my coach and now I’m happy he made the challenge,” Lorincz said.

With the victory, Lorincz joins younger brother Viktor LORINCZ (HUN) as the second wrestler on Hungary’s Rio 2016 team. The younger Lorincz qualified at last September’s world championships in Las Vegas with a fifth-place finish at 85kg in Greco-Roman.

In Friday evening’s finals, Lorincz will face Shmagi BOLKVADZE (GEO) who grabbed Georgia’s first Rio 2016 ticket in Greco-Roman with a 5-0 victory over Dawid KARECINSKI (POL).  Bolkvadze converted in par terre with a front headlock and throw for four points in his win over Karecinski.

In other semifinals, Sanal SEMENOV (RUS) plugged one hole in Russia’s Greco-Roman juggernaut with a technical fall over Aleksandar KOSTADINOV (BUL) at 59kg. Semenov’s win gives Russia a fifth ticket in the six Greco-Roman categories for Rio 2016.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria and Poland each grabbed a pair of tickets to Rio.

Vladimir DUBOV (BUL), a world bronze medalist at the non-Olympic weight category of 61kg, rolled up three technical falls on his way to the finals at 57kg, while European Games runner-up Elitsa YANKOVA (BUL) outscored three opponents, 28-6, at 48kg in the women’s events.

Magomedmurad GADZHIEV (POL) opened up a 5-0 lead over 2013 world champion David SAFARYAN (ARM) in the freestyle semifinals at 65kg and a cruised home with a 7-2 victory. Katarzyna KRAWCZYK (POL), meanwhile, turned away European champion Irina OLOGONOVA (RUS), 10-7, in the quarterfinals on her way to a Rio 2016 berth.

The hometown fans also had plenty to cheer about as former world bronze medalist Kristijan FRIS (SRB) blanked three opponents at 59kg to earn his second trip to the Olympic Games, following a seventh place finish at Beijing 2008.

Freestyle
 

57kg (17 entries)

Semifinal – Garnik MNATSAKANYAN (ARM) df. Anatoli BURUIAN (MDA), 5-3

Semifinal – Vladimir DUBOV (BUL) df. Zoheir EL OUARRAQE (FRA) by TF, 12-0, 4:50

 

Gold – Garnik MNATSAKANYAN (ARM) v Vladimir DUBOV (BUL)

Bronze – Suleyman ATLI (TUR) v Anatoli BURUIAN (MDA)

Bronze – Levan METREVELI (ESP) v Zoheir EL OUARRAQE (FRA)


65kg (16 entries)

Semifinal – Andriy KVYATKOVSKY (UKR) df. Zurabi IAKOBISHVILI (GEO), 2-2 

Semifinal – Magomedmurad GADZHIEV (POL) df. David SAFARYAN (ARM), 7-2


Gold – Andriy KVYATKOVSKY (UKR) v Magomedmurad GADZHIEV (POL)

Bronze – Niko AROUZMANIDIS (GRE) v Zurabi IAKOBISHVILI (GEO)

Bronze – Maximilian AUSSERLEITNER (AUT) v David SAFARYAN (ARM)


Greco-Roman

59kg (19 entries)

Semifinal – Kristian FRIS (SRB) df. Stig-Andre BERGE (NOR) by TF, 8-0, 1:45

Semifinal – Sanal SEMENOV (RUS) df. Aleksandar KOSTADINOV (BUL) by TF, 11-2, 2:56


Gold – Kristian FRIS (SRB) v Sanal SEMENOV (RUS)

Bronze – Jani HAAPAMAEKI (FIN) v Stig-Andre BERGE (NOR)

Bronze – Ardit FAZLJIJA (SWE) v Aleksandar KOSTADINOV (BUL)


66kg (20 entries)

Semifinal – Shmagi BOLKVADZE (GEO) df. Dawid KARECINSKI (POL), 5-0

Semifinal – Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) df. Dominik ETLINGER (CRO), 6-4


Gold – Shamgi BOLKVADZE (GEO) v Tamas LORINCZ (HUN)

Bronze – Marius THOMMESEN (NOR) v Dawid KARECINSKI (POL)

Bronze – Artak MARGARYAN (FRA) v Dominik ETLINGER (CRO)


Women’s Wrestling

48kg (11 entries)

Semifinal – Emilia VUC (ROM) df. Natalya PULKOVSKA (UKR), 6-5 

Semifinal – Elista YANKOVA (BUL) df. Maryna MARKEVICH (BLR), 6-2


Gold – Emilia VUC (ROM) v Elista YANKOVA (BUL)

Bronze – Jacquline SCHELLIN (GER) v Natalya PULKOVSKA (UKR)

Bronze – Evin DEMIRKAN (TUR) v Maryna MARKEVICH (BLR)


53kg (14 entries)

Semifinal – Katarzyna KRAWCZYK (POL) df. Francesca MORI (ITA) by TF, 11-1, 3:19

Semifinal – Nina HEMMER (GER) df. Yulia KHAVALDZHY BLAHINYA (UKR), 10-8


Gold – Katarzyna KRAWCZYK (POL) v Nina HEMMER (GER)

Bronze – Irina OLOGONOVA (RUS) v Francesca MORI (ITA)

Bronze – Yulia KHAVALDZHY (UKR) v Vanesa KALADZINSKAYA (BLR)

#development

Development in 2024: UWW's rapid strides off and on mat activities

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 10) -- Launching education programs that laid the foundation for future generations of sports administrators, a historic step taken towards gender parity, adding the first online beach wrestling course, providing unfettered access to coaches, wrestlers and spectators to an interactive site that analyses data from all major United World Wrestling tournaments and conducting workshops on the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in coaching.

The year 2024 will go down as a watershed year in wrestling not just because of the spectacular action on the biggest stage of all, the Olympics. The year will also be seen as critical because, through various developmental initiatives, the UWW did important groundwork to support the future generations of wrestlers.

One of the landmark moments of the year was the election of seven women to the UWW Bureau, the sport’s supreme body, during the Congress in Tirana, Albania, on October 27. This marked a big step in women’s wrestling leadership and made it the highest registered female candidate for the Bureau in UWW’s history.

“From Tokyo to Paris, we made great strides to promote gender equality within our wrestling community. We have to pave the way for our future generations for equal opportunities, no matter the gender, the religious beliefs, ethnicity, etc.,” UWW President Nenad LALOVIC said.

This was also the year when wrestling took another step in opening its platforms to wrestlers, coaches and fans from the world over. By making the site accessible to all, the data and metrics for each style at every major competition from 2020 to the present can be on the UWW Academy page under the ‘Analytics’ tab. This is a great way to see how points are being scored for each style, weight category, medal matches, teams, among other things.

One of the benefits of making all the data available is it could help improve training decisions (technical and tactical) and overall general knowledge of the sport.

Another great addition to the UWW Academy portal was the first-ever online beach wrestling course. This course is designed to provide an overview of beach wrestling, the fastest-growing style. Topics include the benefits of beach wrestling, basic rules and scoring, differences between beach wrestling and the Olympic styles, how competitions are organized, how bouts are organized and conducted, and the Beach Wrestling World Series.

Soon, there will be new referee and rules courses coming to the UWW Academy.

Apart from the wide array of online courses, the UWW also held on-ground sessions in different parts of the world.T

he More than Medals camps grew stronger this year, with sessions in Jordan, the Dominican Republic and for U17 wrestlers in Serbia.

A significant milestone was achieved by conducting the South-East Asia & Oceania Education Week in Perth from September 30 to October 4.

Representatives from seven Oceania nations — Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Tahiti, and the Marshall Islands — and a participant from Singapore gathered with the hope of enhancing wrestling expertise across the region. For many, the session was their first UWW certification in years, adding even more impact to the event and underlining the UWW’s efforts to grow the sport.

Argentina became the first country in the Americas to host a Level 3 Coaches Course. This was also the first-ever Level 3 course conducted in Spanish globally. Bulgaria successfully hosted a Level 2 Coaches Course while India was the destination for the Level 1 course.

A total of approximately 150 coaches benefitted from these sessions, marking a significant step in their education.

Tunisia, Senegal, Guatemala, Croatia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are some other countries where crucial UWW developmental programs were hosted.

Cambodia marked a significant milestone in terms of growth of wrestling in the country by conducting the Development of the National Sports System from July 18 to November 30, 2024.

Another important program was on using AI and other new technologies in coaching during the ASOIF Sports Development and Education Group (ASDEG) Workshop in Lausanne.

UWW Development Director and ASDEG Chair Deqa NIAMKEY, who was also elected as a Board Member of the International Council for Coaching Excellence (ICCE) in February 2024, underlined the transformative potential of AI.

The annual meeting, which attracted 60 experts representing over 30 International Federations (IFs), agreed to implement a range of initiatives over the next 12 months. It included supporting the IFs in increasing the representation of Women Technical Officials and Coaches to meet International Olympic Committee targets, establishing regular communication to facilitate cross-sport collaboration and knowledge-sharing and equipping IFs with incorporating technology in development programs and resources for education.