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Rising star Bondar strikes third U23 European gold

Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 05:19 By United World Wrestling Press

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TIRANA, Albania (March 12) -- In five of the last six tournaments she’d competed before landing in Tirana, Iryna BONDAR (UKR) was unstoppable. She returned with a gold medal each time, and with every passing tournament, a halo blazed around her.

On Thursday, that nearly came down crashing. In an extraordinary final in the 62kg category at the U23 European Championships, Amina TANDELOVA (UWW) gave Bondar a mighty scare. The Ukrainian ultimately asserted her class but not before she endured anxious moments.

It all looked under control until Tandelova, who was down 1-0 for passivity, scored a arm-throw for a four-point takedown to go 4-1 up and stun the arena. Bondar fired back with a reversal and gut-wrench to make it 4-4 but heading into the break, Tandelova was in the lead because of her bigger throw.

The breather gave Bondar a chance to regroup and return stronger. She didn’t put a foot wrong defensively in the second period. Her hands close, like a boxer taking her guard, she planted her left leg almost a foot behind the right, making it tough for Tandelova to go for the single-leg takedown.

Tanelova, however, looked content only defending, but it was a strategy fraught with risk. And Bondar, who didn’t lose patience, was rewarded for her perseverance. With only 45 seconds remaining, Bondar went around the outside for a single-leg takedown to which her opponent had no answer. In the nick of time, Bondar snuck ahead and then did well to defend her lead to win a thrilling bout 6-4.

Not too long ago, another Ukrainian was in the fray for the gold medal but it wasn’t to be.

Twice in her 57kg final, former U20 world champion Aryna MARTYNAVA (UWW) was in deep adversity despite an early 4-2 lead. First, when she was put on activity clock with a little more than a minute left in the 57kg gold medal bout. With seconds running out, Alina FILIPOVYCH (UKR) grew confident that she’d reduce the 4-2 deficit by 1.

Filipovych, the senior European Championship silver medalist at 59kg, went for a single-leg attack but Martynava was on high alert and escaped to score a go-behind takedown during the activity clock for a 6-2 lead.

Then, with 22 seconds remaining, Filipovych went for a double-leg takedown. However, Martynava blocked it by double-underhook and counter-attacked to pocket two more points and win 8-2.

Since winning the U20 European Championship gold three years ago, Elnura MAMMADOVA (AZE) has come agonisingly close to a top-of-the-podium finish thrice: bronze medals at the U23 European and World Championships in 2023, and a silver last year at the continental U23 competition.

As she stepped on to the mat for one last time in this age-group, Mammadova looked determined to change the color of her medal. Six minutes later, she did. The 23-year-old from Azerbaijan defeated Ekaterina KARPUSHKINA (UWW) 3-0 to be crowned champion in the 53 kg category.

Mammadova earned a passivity point around the minute-mark and then executed an almost-perfect headlock throw to go 3-0 up at the break. In the second period, Karpushkina threw the kitchen sink at her opponent and tried combinations of leg holds. But a wily Mammadova kept evading her grasp and successfully defended her lead to win the gold medal.

In the 65kg final, Kseniya TSIARENIA (UWW) needed only 1 minute and 22 seconds to beat Eniko ELEKES (HUN) by fall and win the gold medal. 

The former U20 world and European champion from Hungary Elekes took the lead inside the first minute with a two-point takedown but her joy did not last long as Tsiarenia returned with a vengeance as she stopped a head-outside leg-attack from Elekes with a whizzer and kept the Hungarian's back on the mat to secure the fall.

Tsiarenia, thus, claimed her first-ever international gold medal and also avenged her 11-0 loss to Elekes from the 2023 World Championships in which Elekes won gold and Tsiarenia claimed bronze.

Like her, Kristina BRATCHIKOVA (UWW), too, won her first-ever title by overturning a two-point deficit to beat Daniela TKACHUK (POL) 4-3 at 72kg.

Tkachuk led 2-0 and had Bratchikova in a double-leg hold but failed to finish. Bratchikova forced Tkachuk to let go of her legs and as the Polish wrestler spun to score a takedown, two points were awarded to Bratchikova for exposure.

Bratchikova made it 4-2 when she defended a double-arm lock from Tkachuk and stepped over to score two points. Tkachuk managed to escape the fall while Bratchikova was penalized for a foul. As the bout resumed in par terre with 29 seconds left, Tkachuk tried to roll but Bratchikova held her ground to emerge victorious.

Baidusov eyes gold on return

Former world U20 champion Evgenii BAIDUSOV (UWW) will be favorite to win his first U23 European Championship title when he takes on Aaron BELLSCHEIDT (GER) in the 77kg final Thursday, the penultimate day of the competition.

Baidusov, returning to international competition for the first time since winning the U20 world gold in 2021, dropped just one point in his three bouts. In the semifinals, he shocked Alexandrin GUTU (MDA) with a stunning underhook throw. He added a roll and in another sequence, he scored via front chestwrap for two to beat Gutu 9-0.

Another world U20 champion Vigen NAZARYAN (ARM) did not have the same luck as he fell in the quarterfinals against Vladimeri KARCHAIDZE (FRA) who made it to the 87kg final and will take on Alperen BERBER (TUR), senior European champion, who finally has a U23 European medal after two previous failed attempts.

Photo

RESULTS

Women's Wrestling

53kg
GOLD: Elnura MAMMADOVA (AZE) df. Ekaterina KARPUSHKINA (UWW), 3-0

BRONZE: Carla JAUME SOLER (ESP) df. Maria FERONE (ITA), 5-4
BRONZE: Viktoryia VOLK (UWW) df. Nataliia KLIVCHUTSKA (UKR), via fall (5-1)

57kg
GOLD: Aryna MARTYNAVA (UWW) df. Alina FILIPOVYCH (UKR), 8-2

BRONZE: Gerda TEREK (HUN) df. Inna ALIMOVA (LTU), 10-0
BRONZE: Georgiana LIRCA (ROU) df. Gultakin SHIRINOVA (AZE), 9-2

62kg
GOLD: Iryna BONDAR (UKR) df. Amina TANDELOVA (UWW), 8-4

BRONZE: Alicja NOWOSAD (POL) df. Alesia HETMANAVA (UWW), 7-6
BRONZE: Selvi ILYASOGLU (TUR) df. Iris THIEBAUX (FRA), 5-3

65kg
GOLD: Kseniya TSIARENIA (UWW) df. Eniko ELEKES (HUN), via fall (4-2)

BRONZE: Luisa SCHEEL (GER) df. Viorica ADAM (ROU), 4-0
BRONZE: Oleksandra RYBAK (UKR) df. Ruzanna MAMMADOVA (AZE), 8-2

72kg
GOLD: Kristina BRATCHIKOVA (UWW) df. Daniela TKACHUK (POL), 4-3

BRONZE: Haticenur SARI (TUR) df. Noemi OSVATH NAGY (HUN), 6-6
BRONZE: Veronika VILK (CRO) df. Paula ROTARU (ROU), 13-2

Greco-Roman Semifinals

55kg
GOLD: Koba KARUMIDZE (GEO) vs. Alibek AMIROV (UWW)

SF 1: Alibek AMIROV (UWW) df. Elmir ALIYEV (AZE), 2-2
SF 2: Koba KARUMIDZE (GEO) df. Mehmet SARP (TUR), 9-0

63kg
GOLD: Ziya BABASHOV (AZE) vs. Vitalie ERIOMENCO (MDA)

SF 1: Vitalie ERIOMENCO (MDA) df. Romeo BERIDZE (GEO), 6-3
SF 2: Ziya BABASHOV (AZE) df. Miroslav EMILOV (BUL), 8-0

77kg
GOLD: Evgenii BAIDUSOV (UWW) vs. Aaron BELLSCHEIDT (GER)

SF 1: Aaron BELLSCHEIDT (GER) df. Michal ZELENKA (CZE), 5-5
SF 2: Evgenii BAIDUSOV (UWW) df. Alexandrin GUTU (MDA), 9-0

87kg
GOLD: Vladimeri KARCHAIDZE (FRA) vs. Alperen BERBER (TUR)

SF 1: Alperen BERBER (TUR) df. Ivan CHMYR (UKR), 4-1
SF 2: Vladimeri KARCHAIDZE (FRA) df. Hamza SERTCANLI (SWE), via injury (3-1)

97kg
GOLD: Magomed ALICHUEV (UWW) vs. Mykhailo VYSHNYVETSKYI (UKR)

SF 1: Mykhailo VYSHNYVETSKYI (UKR) df. Saba CHILASHVILI (GEO), via injury (1-1)
SF 2: Magomed ALICHUEV (UWW) df. Yusuf BAKIR (TUR), 3-1

marketing, #development

Wiebe inspires next gen at UWW-IIS camp in India

Saturday, February 15, 2025 - 08:21 By Vinay Siwach

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KARNATAKA, India (February 15) -- Erica WIEBE (CAN), the 2016 Rio Olympic champion, usually doesn't take it around but for her India trip, she made sure to pack her gold medal from Rio.

Call it luck, the gold medal turned out to be the highlight of her trip.

In India for a masterclass at the international women's wrestling camp organized by the Inspire Institute of Sport and United World Wrestling, Wiebe got mobbed by 50 young wrestlers as she showed them her medal. Wrestlers from Jordan, Estonia, South Africa, Mauritius, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and hosts India, all part of the camp, wanted to touch it, feel it and may be keep it.

"To see the looks on their faces and in their bodies responding to what it felt like to hold the kind of weight of your dream in your hand, I got emotional with them," Wiebe says. "It was so surreal for me to share the medal with the athletes because it brought me back to where I was at that time, and how it felt like winning an Olympic gold medal was just like this impossible dream that would never happen. It's really important for me to come here and do things like this to remind these women that, these crazy, unimaginable things are real. They can happen and to encourage them to continue to dream big."

No wrestler could walk away without a photo. A few even got emotional as they took the medal in their hands.

"God, I don't know how many times I have dreamt about that in the night," U17 world bronze medalist Lisette BOTTKER (EST) says. "When I got the medal on my hands, I was also trying not to cry but the feeling is awesome."

Maya QUTAISHAT (JOR) adds, "It seemed like the dreams of most of us wrestlers in front of us. Like getting the Olympic gold medal."

UWW and IIS organized the camp for wrestlers from around the world from January 15 to 31. It was hosted by IIS at it's world class facility in Vijayanagar, a township in Ballari district of north Karnataka, India.

Wiebe held a masterclass for the wrestlers along with training sessions with IIS head coach Amir TAVOKKALIAN, a former world silver medalist and Asian champion.

"It's a really amazing development opportunity for a young wrestlers from all around the world," Wiebe said. "There's several nations here, and it's so incredible to see the level of talent and passion of these young athletes. At the camp this week, we've had a number of sessions kind of leveraging different unique styles, having the different countries lead different warmups. We're here at the Inspire Institute of Sport which is a phenomenal world class facility. We don't have anything like this in Canada, there's very few facilities like this in the world. It's really exciting to see that India has this.

"Not only that, they have this for their athletes training, but they've invited many countries around the world to share in this moment and to leverage the resources that are available here on this site."

IIS President Manisha MALHOTRA also visited the camp and threw some light on the partnership with UWW to grow the sport.

"We're very passionate about the sport from an Indian ecosystem point of view," Malhotra said. "But what we realized is that, we need to start looking outside India to bring in expertise, look in partnerships. With that in mind, I think there was no better partner than UWW.

"They’ve done a phenomenal job with wrestling worldwide and growing the sport very well. The idea was to have a very good mix of people, whether they are from a very developed wrestling nation or from an underdeveloped wrestling nation, it needs to be a common platform where people can extract some sort of benefit for everybody. That was the main premise with what we worked with."

Apart from the training, wrestlers at the camp used the high performance center at IIS and indulged in sightseeing.

"Training here is very strong. We come out of the mat sweating a lot, and it's very tough," Qutaishat said, "The girls here are very high level. When I wrestle them, I learn a lot of techniques and so many things that I usually don't see back in my country. But I get to explore more as I go out to the camps."

Wiebe had an advice for all wrestlers, especially coming from smaller countries to the development camps.

"I told the athletes the goals are: to have fun, and to get better," Wiebe said. "And how do you do that? You find strength on the edge of failure. You have to put yourself on the line. Wrestling is not easy. You see it on the athletes bodies. They're pushing themselves to their limits, physically and mentally. They are tired. I remember being that way as an athlete. You always have to find another level to yourself."