#kaspeuro2018

Pair of Olympic Champions Lead Greco-Roman Field at European Championships

By Eric Olanowski

KASPIISK, Russia (April 17) - The 2018 European Championships commence in less than two weeks in Dagestan, Russia. Though line-ups are not official, Greco-Roman preliminary line-ups have been submitted to United World Wrestling and the pair of Olympic champions in Roman VLASOV (RUS) and Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) lead a field littered with Olympic medalists.

The first five weight categories (55kg, 63kg, 77kg, 87kg, and 130kg) will start wrestling on Monday, April 30, and the remaining five weight classes (60kg, 67kg, 72kg, 82kg, and 97kg) being on Tuesday, May 1.  

55kg
Eldaniz AZIZLI (AZE)

Nedyalko Petrov PETROV (BUL)
Sandro FRANKOL (CRO)
Helary MAEGISALU (EST)
Nugzari TSURTSUMIA (GEO)
VasilII TOPOEV (RUS)
Ekrem OZTURK (TUR)

60kg
Armen MELIKYAN (ARM)
Raphael JAEGER (AUT)
Murad MAMMADOV (AZE)
Maksim KAZHARSKI (BLR)
Avgustin Boyanov SPASOV (BUL)
Leo Alexandre Sylvain TUDEZCA (FRA)
Dato CHKHARTISHVILI (GEO)
Etienne KINSINGER    (GER)
Erik TORBA (HUN)
Illya TSARYUK ISR)
Jacopo SANDRON (ITA)
Justas PETRAVICIUS  (LTU)
Michal Jacek TRACZ (POL)
Antonio MARTINS CABRAL (POR)
Virgil MUNTEANU (ROU)
Sergey EMELIN (RUS)
Kerem KAMAL (TUR)

Olympic bronze medalist, Stig-Andre BERGE (NOR). Photo by Tony Rotundo. 

63kg
Slavik GALSTYAN (ARM)
Taleh MAMMADOV (AZE)
Rakhmatsikhudo KHAIBARAU (BLR)
Nikolay Ivanov VICHEV (BUL)
Ivan LIZATOVIC (CRO)
Levani KAVJARADZE (GEO)
Mate KRASZNAI (HUN)
Donior ISLAMOV (MDA)
Stig-Andre BERGE (NOR)
Mihai Radu MIHUT (ROU)
Zaur KABALOEV (RUS)
Tamas NAD (SRB)
Rahman BILICI (TUR)

67kg 
Karen ASLANYAN  (ARM)
Elman MUKHTAROV (AZE)
Soslan DAUROV (BLR)
Deyvid Tihomirov DIMITROV (BUL)
Michal NOVAK (CZE)
Fredrik Holmquist BJERREHUUS (DEN)
Yasin OZAY (FRA)
Shmagi BOLKVADZE (GEO)
Erik WEISS  (GER)
Istvan KOZAK  (HUN)
Aleksandrs JURKJANS (LAT)
Edgaras VENCKAITIS (LTU)
Valeriu TODEREAN (MDA)
Morten THORESEN (NOR)
Dawid KARECINSKI (POL)
Pedro Miguel DE MATOS OLIVEIRA DE MORAIS CA  (POR)
Artem SURKOV (RUS)
Mate NEMES  (SRB)
Hussam Saad Ali OMAR (SWE)
Enes BASAR (TUR)

Olympic bronze medalist, Rasul CHUNAYEV (AZE). Photo by Tony Rotundo. 

72kg
Christoph BURGER (AUT)
Rasul CHUNAYEV (AZE)
Yury KANKOU (BLR)
Danijel JANECIC (CRO)
Jan ZIZKA (CZE)
Evrik NIKOGHOSYAN (FRA)
Iuri LOMADZE (GEO)
Maximilian Andreas SCHWABE (GER)
Balint KORPASI (HUN)
Nikita MASJUKS (LAT)
Daniel CATARAGA (MDA)
Pal Eirik GUNDERSEN (NOR)
Gevorg SAHAKYAN (POL)
Ilie COJOCARI  (ROU)
Adam KURAK (RUS)
Aleksandar MAKSIMOVIC (SRB)
Denis HORVATH (SVK)
Daniel Mattias SOINI  (SWE)
Murat DAG (TUR)

Two-time Olympic champion, Roman VLASOV (RUS). Photo by Tony Rotundo. 

77kg
Karapet CHALYAN (ARM)
Florian MARCHL (AUT)
Elvin MURSALIYEV (AZE)
Kazbek KILOU  (BLR)
Dominik ETLINGER (CRO)
Oldrich VARGA (CZE)
Ismael NAVARRO SANCHEZ (ESP)
Tero Antero Matias HALMESMAEKI (FIN)
Tornike DZAMASHVILI (GEO)
Florian NEUMAIER (GER)
Georgios PREVOLARAKIS (GRE)
Tamas LORINCZ  (HUN)
Igor PETRISNIN (ISR)
Riccardo Vito ABBRESCIA (ITA)
Paulius GALKINAS (LTU)
Igor BESLEAGA (MDA)
Mateusz Lukasz WOLNY (POL)
Roman VLASOV (RUS)
Viktor NEMES (SRB)
Nicolas Peter CHRISTEN (SUI)
Alex Michel BJURBERG KESSIDIS (SWE)
Serkan AKKOYUN (TUR)

82kg 
Maksim MANUKYAN (ARM)
Michael WAGNER (AUT)
Rafig HUSEYNOV (AZE)
Radzik KULIYEU (BLR)
Daniel Tihomirov ALEKSANDROV (BUL)
Bozo STARCEVIC (CRO)
Petr NOVAK  (CZE)
Zurabi DATUNASHVILI (GEO)
Roland SCHWARZ (GER)
Laszlo SZABO  (HUN)
Viorel BURDUJA (MDA)
Edgar BABAYAN (POL)
Ramazan ABACHARAEV (RUS)
Zarko DICKOV  (SRB)
Jan Alexander JERSGREN (SWE)
Emrah KUS (TUR)

87kg
Artur SHAHINYAN  (ARM)
Islam ABBASO (AZE)
Viktar SASUNOUSKI  (BLR)
Tarek Mohamed ABDELSLAM SHEBLE MOHAMED (BUL)
Pedro Jacinto GARCIA PEREZ (ESP)
Eerik APS (EST)
Rami Antero HIETANIEMI (FIN)
Roberti KOBLIASHVILI (GEO)
Denis Maksymilian KUDLA (GER)
Dimitrios TSEKERIDIS (GRE)
Viktor LORINCZ (HUN)
Roman ZHERNOVETSKI (ISR)
Fabio PARISI (ITA)
Julius MATUZEVICIUS (LTU)
Tadeusz MICHALIK (POL)
Bekkhan OZDOEV (RUS)
Nikolaj Georgiev DOBREV (SRB)
Kristoffer Zakarias BERG (SWE)
Metehan BASAR (TUR)

98kg Olympic champion, Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM). Photo by Tony Rotundo.

97kg
Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM)
Daniel GASTL  (AUT)
Orkhan NURIYEV (AZE)
Siarhei STARADUB (BLR)
Nikolay Nikolaev BAYRYAKOV (BUL)
Artur OMAROV (CZE)
Mathias BAK (DEN)
Matti Elias KUOSMANEN (FIN)
Mélonin NOUMONVI (FRA)
Kukuri KIRTSKHALIA (GEO)
Ramsin AZIZSIR (GER)
Laokratis KESIDIS (GRE)
Balazs KISS (HUN)
Robert AVANESYAN (ISR)
Vilius LAURINAITIS (LTU)
Marcel Adam KASPEREK (POL)
Musa EVLOEV (RUS)
Mikheil KAJAIA (SRB)
Tamas SOOS (SVK)
Carl Erik Andre PERSSON (SWE)
Cenk ILDEM (TUR)

Three-time world champion and Olympic silver medalist, Riza KAYAALP (TUR). Photo by Tony Rotundo. 

130kg
Sabah SHARIATI (AZE)
Georgi CHUGOSHVILI (BLR)
Miloslav Yuriev METODIEV (BUL)
Stepan DAVID (CZE)
Juan Rafael HEREDIA MENA (ESP)
Artur VITITIN (EST)
Tuomas Heikki Juhani LAHTI (FIN)
Iakobi KAJAIA  (GEO)
Christian JOHN (GER)
Balint LAM (HUN)
Mantas KNYSTAUTAS (LTU)
Rafal Andrzej KRAJEWSKI (POL)
Alin ALEXUC CIURARIU (ROU)
Vitalii  SHCHUR (RUS)
Riza KAYAALP (TUR)

LIVE BLOG: Pan-American Championships (DAY FOUR)

By Eric Olanowski

CORALVILLE, United States (May 10) -- We just kicked off the final day of wrestling, not only at the Pan-American Championships, but of the continental championship season. Today, we'll had out the final seven freestyle golds at 57kg, 65kg, 70kg, 79kg, 92kg, 97kg and 125kg.

Stars in Action:
Levi David HAINES (USA) - World silver medalist 
Real Marshall Ray WOODS (USA) - World bronze medalist 
Darian Toi CRUZ (PUR) - Paris 2024 Olympian 
Wyatt Avery HENDRICKSON (USA) - Pan-Am champion

12:15: Once we finish these matches on Mat A, we'll be taking a quick five-minute break then head right into the semfinals.  

11:56: Not much to say about Wyatt Avery HENDRICKSON (USA). He hit a snap down to a cradle and pinned Brandon Eloin ANGUIANO FLORES (MEX) in 31 seconds. He'll wrestle the winner of  Gabriel DE SOUSA SILVA (BRA) and Aaron Anthony JOHNSON (JAM) in today's semifinals.

11:38: We have not talk much about the reinging world silver medalist, Levi David HAINES (USA), but he's coming up next on Mat A. He's already had a pair of matches that have both ended in 10-0 wins. He'll try to make it three-for-three, as he'll wrestle Patrik LEDER (CAN) next.

11:36: We're back to action on Mat A. The issue has been fixed and Jose Daniel DIAZ ROBERTTI (VEN) and  Jorawar Singh DHINSA (CAN) are finally wrestling.

11:28: We're having technical issues on Mat A. We apologize for the delay but we'll be back to wrestling once the IT issues get solved.

11:16: Impotant note for tonight's final session. We'll start at 16:00, an hour earlier than normally scheduled. The start time has been updated from 17:00 to 16:00,

11:10: We're doing a mini doc on Hidlay so we just ran back to do a quick interivew and also ran the Question of the Day: "Which Olympic champion has the best shot to win 97kg world gold in Bahrain? Sadulaev, Snyder, Tazhudinov or Yazdani?" That'll be up on our IG tomorrow, so stay tuned.  

10:41: Hidlay who won 10-0  about 15 minutes ago is already coming up again shortly. He'll be up in three matches on Mat A against AMBROCIO GREIFO Pool Edinson (PER).

10:26: It'll be very USA heavy today. They have a lot of firepower taking the mat and are favored in nearly every weight today. But on a non-USA note: reigning Pan-Am runner-up from Puerto Rico Shane Christopher JONES (PUR) scored four takedowns in his opening round match against Andrew Terry Musey JOHNSON (CAN), picking up the 8-2 win. 

10:20: Reigning world champion Trent HIDLAY (USA) is the biggest star in action today. He's making his way to Mat A as we speak for his opening round match. I actually just spoke to his coach Jamil KELLY (USA) and this is the match that they circled coming into the competition as the toughest that Trent will face here in Iowa.