WrestleOlegKaravaev

Oleg Karavaev Entries

By Eric Olanowski

MINSK, Belarus (July 19) --- The regular season closes out next week with the final Greco-Roman Ranking Series event, the Oleg Karavaev. The two-day tournament, which will be held in Minsk, Belarus, will feature nearly 175 wrestlers from 19 different nations.

Emrah KUS (TUR), the reigning world runner-up and No. 1-ranked wrestler in the world at 82kg, leads a field littered with 24 wrestlers who are ranked inside the top-20 of the latest Greco-Roman rankings. Kus' weight of 82kg will feature six ranked wrestlers -- which is the most top-20 guys in one bracket.

Two other stacked weight classes to pay attention to are 67kg and 130kg. Both weights house at least four top-20 competitors.

Wrestling at the Palace of Sports begins on July 26 and can be followed live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org.

ENTRIES

55kg
Manjeet MANJEET (IND)
Vijay VIJAY (IND)
Maksym VYSOTSKYI (ISR)
Vladimir ZABEYVOROTA RUS)

Emin Narimanovitch SEFERSHAEV (RUS)

60kg
Ihar DROZD (BLR)
Dzmitry BRYCHAK (BLR)
Marat GARIPOV  (BRA)
Gautam YADAV (IND)
Vijay VIJAY (IND)
Manish MANISH (IND)
Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN)
Khorlan ZHAKANSHA  (KAZ)
Amangali BEKBOLATOV (KAZ)
Zhanserik SARSENBIYEV (KAZ)
Seunghak KIM (KOR)
Artur PETROSIAN (RUS)
Sadyk LALAEV(RUS)

Ahmet UYAR   (TUR)
Andriy MARTYNYUK (UKR)
Ihor KUROCHKIN (UKR)
Javokhir MIRAKHMEDOV (UZB)
Ilkhom BAKHROMOV (UZB)

63kg
Yahor BELIAK  (BLR)
Aliaksandr PECHURENKA (BLR)
Erbatu TUO (CHN)
Sailike WALIHAN (CHN)
Juuso Aleksi LATVALA (FIN)
Sagar SAGAR (IND)
Shinobu OTA (JPN)
Aidos SULTANGALI (KAZ)
Mirambek AINAGULOV (KAZ)
Damir ZARLYKHANOV (KAZ)
Justas PETRAVICIUS (LTU)
Roman Aleksandrovich IVANOV (RUS)
Shamil Salauddinovitch MUALIEV (RUS)
Fadis VALITOV (RUS)
Nasrullakh NASIBOV (UKR)
Elmurat TASMURADOV (UZB)
Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
Firuz TUKHTAEV (UZB)

Second-ranked Hansu RYU (KOR) will lock up the No. 2 seed at the World Championships with a win in Minsk. (Photo: Sachiko Hotaka)

67kg 
Soslan DAUROV (BLR)
Maksim NEHODA (BLR)
Mikita BARANAU (BLR)
Fredrik Holmquist BJERREHUUS (DEN)
Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed Ibrahi ELSAYED (EGY)
Abouhalima Mohamed Elsaid ABOUHALIMA (EGY)
Manish MANISH (IND)
Tsuchika SHIMOYAMADA (JPN)
Shogo TAKAHASHI (JPN)
Daniyar KALENOV (KAZ)
Ruslan ITEMGENOV (KAZ)
Hansu RYU (KOR)
Aleksandrs JURKJANS (LAT)
Edgaras VENCKAITIS (LTU)
Alen MIRZOIAN (RUS)
Miakhdi Abubakarovitch IAKHIAEV (RUS)
Enes BASAR (TUR)
Murat FIRAT (TUR)
Vasyl SYMONENKO (UKR)
Aram VARDANYAN (UZB)
Makhmud BAKHSHILLOEV (UZB)
Mirzobek RAKHMATOV (UZB)

72kg 
Ruslan AHAMALYIEU (BLR)
Anton KORABAU (BLR)
Uladzislau MANKEVICH (BLR)
Gaoquan ZHANG (CHN)
Hassan Hassan Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY)
Miras AKHMETZHANOV (KAZ)
Meiirzhan SHERMAKHANBET (KAZ)
Kristupas SLEIVA (LTU)
Magomed YARBILOV (RUS)
Narek OGANIAN (RUS)
Arslan ZUBAIROV (RUS)
Andrii KULYK (UKR)

77kg 
Pavel LIAKH (BLR)
Tsimur BERDYIEU (BLR)
Anton SAKHNO (BLR)
Ridong ZHANG (CHN)
Hujun ZHANG  (CHN)
Jakub BIELESZ (CZE)
Mohamed Ehab Mohamed Zahab KHALIL (EGY)
Sakke Petteri PUROLAINEN (FIN)
Niko Olavi Oskari ERKKOLA (FIN)
Yogesh YOGESH (IND)
Sajan SAJAN (IND)
Naotsugu SHOJI (JPN)
Shohei YABIKU (JPN)
Ibragim MAGOMADOV (KAZ)
Paulius GALKINAS (LTU)
Rafael IUNUSOV (RUS)
Islam OPIEV (RUS)
Akhmed KAYTSUKOV  (RUS)
Serkan AKKOYUN (TUR)
Ivan KRAICHEV (UKR)
Yasaf ZEINALOV (UKR)


Top-ranked Emrah KUS (TUR) leads an 82kg field that has six ranked wrestler that'll be in action. (Photo: Gabor Martin) 

82kg 
Viktar SASUNOUSKI (BLR)
Stanislau SHAFARENKA (BLR)
Mikita KLIMOVICH (BLR)
Haitao QIAN (CHN)
Bin YANG (CHN)
Oldrich VARGA (CZE)
Rajbek Alvievich BISULTANOV (DEN)
Singh GURPREET (IND)
Singh HARPREET (IND)
Igor PETRISHIN (ISR)
Maxat YEREZHEPOV (KAZ)
Askhat ZHANBIROV (KAZ)
Miras BARSHYLYKOV (KAZ)
Milad Valerikovitch ALIRZAEV (RUS)
Emrah KUS (TUR)
Ruslan KONIEV (UKR)
Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB)
Bilan NALGIEV (UZB)
Nurbek KHASHIMBEKOV (UZB)

87kg
Radzik KULIYEU (BLR)
Mikalai STADUB (BLR)
Kiryl MASKEVICH (BLR)
Junjie NA (CHN)
Mohamed Moustafa Ahmed Abdall METWALLY (EGY)
Kumar SUNIL (IND)
Takahiro TSURUDA (JPN)
Masato SUMI  (JPN)
Azamat KUSTUBAYEV (KAZ)
Baurzhan MUSSIN (KAZ)
Laimutis ADOMAITIS (LTU)
Martynas NEMSEVICIUS (LTU)
Julius MATUZEVICIUS (LTU)
Vaag MARGARIAN (RUS)
Gazi KHALILOV (RUS)
Dogan GOKTAS (TUR)
Muhammadali SHAMSIDDINOV (UZB)
Rustam ASSAKALOV (UZB)

97kg
Aliaksandr HRABOVIK (BLR)
Siarhei STARADUB (BLR)
Dzmitry KAMINSKI (BLR)
Yanan CHEN (CHN)
Yan LIU (CHN)
Artur OMAROV (CZE)
Ondrej DADAK (CZE)
Mathias BAK (DEN)
Ravi RAVI (IND)
Yuta NARA (JPN)
Olzhas SYRLYBAY (KAZ)
Yerulan ISKAKOV (KAZ)
Alimkhan SYZDYKOV (KAZ)
Vilius LAURINAITIS (LTU)
Ruslan BEKUZAROV (RUS)
Fatih BASKOY (TUR)
Suleyman DEMIRCI (TUR)
Ibrahim TIGCI (TUR)
Zielimkhan DZIHASOV (UKR)
Oleksandr SHYSHMAN (UKR)
Jahongir TURDIEV (UZB)

KIM Minseok (KOR), a Budapest world bronze medalist, only need one point to lock up at least a top-four seed at the World Championships. (Photo: Max Rose-Fyne)

130kg
Kiryl HRYSHCHANKA (BLR)
Georgi CHUGOSHVILI (BLR)
Javid HAMZATAU (BLR)
Yasmani ACOSTA FERNANDEZ (CHI)
Di XIAO (CHN)
Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
Stepan DAVID (CZE)
Abdellatif Mohamed Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY)
Konsta Johannes MAEENPAEAE (FIN)
Tuomas Heikki Juhani LAHTI (FIN)
Naveen NAVEEN (IND)
Damir KUZEMBAYEV (KAZ)
Mansur SHADUKAYEV (KAZ)
Minseok KIM (KOR)
Romas FRIDRIKAS (LTU)
Oleg Kahaberovitch AGAKHANOV (RUS)
Osman YILDIRIM (TUR)
Muminjon ABDULLAEV (UZB)

#JapanWrestling

Tokyo champ Shidochi dealt setback in return from two-year layoff

By Ken Marantz

Top photo: Haruna MURAYAMA flips Mayu SHIDOCHI onto her back for a 2-point takedown during their women's 53kg quarterfinal match. (Photo: Takeo Yabuki / wrestling-spirits.jp)

TOKYO (June 20) -- Through their years as university teammates and beyond, Tokyo Olympic champion Mayu SHIDOCHI and Haruna MURAYAMA each compiled a long list of laurels that included three world titles.

But when their paths crossed on the mat, Shidochi had been the dominant one. Murayama showed on Friday that those days are over.

Shidochi, returning to the mat after a two-year layoff that included giving birth to her first child, saw her bid for a shot at a fourth world title end when Murayama dealt her a 5-1 loss in the women's 53kg quarterfinals at the Meiji Cup All-Japan Invitational Championships in Tokyo, the second of two qualifiers for this year's World Championships.

Shidochi, who won the Tokyo Olympic gold at 53kg under her maiden name of MUKAIDA, was ahead on criteria in the second period after each received an activity point, but Murayama (nee OKUNO) went ahead with a pair of takedowns.

"It's really disappointing," said Shidochi, who had a 9-0 career record against Murayama before losing to her for the first time at the Emperor's Cup All-Japan Championships in December 2022. "I lost to Okuno at the Tokyo qualifier and I really wanted to get revenge for that."

Mayu SHIDOCHI (JPN)Haruna MURAYAMA works to get behind Mayu SHIDOCHI for a takedown during their women's 53kg quarterfinal match. (Photo: Takeo Yabuki / wrestling-spirits.jp)

Shidochi, who will turn 28 on Sunday, had last competed two years at the Meiji Cup, which was part of the qualifying process for the Paris Olympics. Her dreams of an Olympic repeat ended with a loss by fall in the second round to Akari FUJINAMI, who went on to take the 53kg gold in Paris.

Shidochi, who has her sights set on the 2026 Asian Games to be hosted by Japan, had planned to return in July at a lower-tier national tournament, where she could qualify for this year's Emperor's Cup, a qualifier for the Asian Games. But she moved it up a month when she found out her status as a former Olympic champion granted her entry into the Meiji Cup.

"Even though I lost like this at this tournament, I'm glad I took up the challenge," she said. "Ilost, but I found out things that I need to work on. I want to use that to step up my game so I can win in December."

Shidochi said that is probably more nerves than rustiness that did her in against Murayama, who is two years her junior.

"When I was warming up, I was moving really well," she said. "But during the match, I thought I could do more. I wasn't moving my feet. In preparation, I trained hard and did my research. I was really looking forward to it, but it didn't work out."

Murayama still has her work cut out for her if she wants to be on the plane to Zagreb. In Saturday's final, she will face Moe KIYOOKA, who last year succeeded her as the world 55kg champion. The two met in the final at the 2023 Emperor's Cup, which Kiyooka won 5-1.

A victory by Kiyooka would give her the world team spot outright. If Murayama wins, it will set up a playoff between the two later in the session, although Murayama has another option.

Murayama won the 55kg title at the Emperor's Cup, but opted not contest that playoff.

In another weight class that started Friday and will end Saturday, world 72kg champion Ami ISHII looks poised to grab the world team spot at 68kg after easily winning her lone match of the day in a four-woman round-robin that is down to three after Rin MIYAGI's injury withdrawal.

Ishii will clinch the spot with a victory in her final match against Seia MOCHINAGA. Meanwhile, Yoshinosuke AOYAGI will need to take the playoff route if he wants to improve on the world silver medal at freestyle 70kg that he won last year.

Aoyagi, the Emperor's Cup champion, was dealt a last-second 3-2 defeat in the semifinals by world U20 champion Ryoya YAMASHITA, who will take on Shoya MIURA in Saturday's final in a battle of 19-year-olds.

Aoyagi, a two time world U23 medalist, is coming off winning a gold at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series tournament in Tirana and his second career Asian medal with a bronze in Amman.

Keyvan GHAREHDAGHI (JPN)Keyvan GHAREHDAGHI scores a takedown during his 4-4 victory over Emperor's Cup champion Ryunosuke KAMIYA in the freestyle 74kg semifinals. (Photo: Takeo Yakubi / wrestling-spirits.jp)

There will also be a playoff at freestyle 74kg, where Emperor's Cup champion Ryunosuke KAMIYA was dealt a nail-biting loss to 19-year-old collegiate champion Keyvan GHAREHDAGHI.

Gharehdaghi, whose father is Iranian, has already made Japan's team to the U20 worlds. To get the senior worlds, he will first have to get through fellow collegian Subaru TAKAHARA, who has qualified for the U23 worlds.

At freestyle 61kg, 2021 world bronze medalist Toshihiro HASEGAWA scored in double-digits in all three of his victories to advance to the final, capped by a 10-2 semifinal win over Aiki KAWAI.

In the final, Hasegawa will face Akito MUKAIDA -- Shidochi's younger brother, who has already qualified for the World U23 Championships.