#WrestleOlegKaravaev

Sasunouski Stops No. 1 Kus; Belarus Wins Oleg Karavev Team Title

Sunday, July 28, 2019 - 16:28 By Eric Olanowski

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MINSK, Belarus (July 28) --- Viktar SASUNOUSKI (BLR) gave the host nation one of their four Oleg Karavaev golds and sealed up the third seed at September’s World Championships with a late clutch throw in the 82kg finals against the No.1-ranked wrestler in the world Emrah KUS (TUR). 

In the opening period of the gold-medal match, Sasunouski conceded an inactivity point and an exposure and fell behind 3-0 to last year’s Budapest world runner-up. Sasunouski scored first in the second period and trailed 3-1 when he threw a desperation headlock -- which was good enough to pick up two correct throw points. Sasunouski hung on to edge Kus, 3-3 on criteria. 

Sasunouski came into the Oleg Karavaev as the fourth-ranked wrestler in the world at 82kg, but after his title-winning efforts in his home country, he’s passed Iran’s Saeid ABDVALI for the third seed heading into Nur-Sultan. 

The three other Belarusians gold medalists were Pavel LIAKH, Radzik KULIYEU and Siarhei STARADUB. They won their titles at 77kg, 87kg and 97kg, respectively.

In 77kg gold-medal match, Liakh cruised to an 11-0 win over Japan’s Shohei YABIKU and earned his second career Oleg Karavaev gold medal, but first since the 2016 season. 

Kuliyeu earned the hard-fought victory in the 87kg finals over Dogan GOKTAS (TUR) and will move into the fourth seed at the World Championships. Hungary’s Erik SZILVASSY and Viktor LORINCZ are ranked third and fourth, respectively, but will have to forfeit one of the top-four spots because each nation can only enter one wrestler per nation into the World Championships. Hungary’s forfeiture of one of their top-four seeds moved Islam ABBASOV (AZE) into the fourth seed, but since he’s didn’t compete this weekend, Kuliyeu needed nine points to overthrow the Azeri for the fourth spot. He ended up collecting 16 Ranking Series points and is now the fourth-ranked wrestler in the world at 87kg. 

The final Belarusian gold medal of the tournament went to Siarhei Staradub who took down Suleyman DEMIRCI (TUR), 6-1 in the 97kg finals. 

Belarus (147 points), on the backs of the four gold medalists, won the team title two points ahead of second-place Russia (145 points). Turkey rounded out the top three of the team race with 113 points. 

KIM Seunghak (KOR) won his third consecutive Ranking Series title with a 3-1 win over Ahmet UYAR (TUR) in the 60kg finals. (Photo: Gabor Martin)

Kim Wins Third Consecutive Ranking Series Title
KIM Seunghak (KOR) came into Minsk riding one of the hottest streaks in all of wrestling and added yet another Ranking Series title to his resume with a 3-1 victory over Ahmet UYAR (TUR) in the 60kg gold-medal bout.

Kim started his season off with a fifth-place finish at the Grand Prix of Zagreb, but has since won Ranking Series golds at three straight events. He's had title-winning performances at the Hungarian Grand Prix and the City of Sassari tournament in Sardinia and now the Oleg Karavaev. 

Kim has now earned the second seed at 60kg. He was stationed 14 points behind Victor CIOBANU (MDA), last year’s world runner-up, but with the 16 points he earned at the Oleg Karavaev, the Korean passed the Moldovan wrestler for the world’s second Ranking. 


Mohamed ELSAYED stuck two-time world champion Hansu RYU (KOR) in the 67kg finals.

ElSayed Wins Battle of Past World Champs 
In a battle of past world champions, Egypt’s Mohamed ELSAYED stuck RYU Hansu (KOR) in the 67kg finals after dominating the match from whistle-to-whistle. 

ElSayed, the reigning U23 world champion, had a large lead on Ryu, the two-time world champion, before tossing the Korean wrestler to his back for the fall.

Ryu was clearly frustrated when he got up to his feet and demanded that his corner challenge the initial four-point action -- saying it was a leg four. Ultimately, an additional point was tacked on for the failed challenge and ElSayed grabbed his first Ranking Series title of his career.

RESUTLS

Final Team Standings 
GOLD - Belarus (147 points) 
SILVER - Russia (145 points) 
BRONZE - Turkey (113 points) 
FOURTH -Kazakhstan (88 points) 
FIFTH - Uzbekistan (67 points) 

Gold Medal Results
55kg - Emin Narimanovitch SEFERSHAEV (RUS) df. Manjeet MANJEET (IND), 9-0 
60kg - Seunghak KIM (KOR) df. Ahmet UYAR (TUR) , 3-1 
63kg -  Shinobu OTA (JPN) df. Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB), 11-1 
67kg - Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed Ibrahi ELSAYED (EGY) df. Hansu RYU (KOR), via fall 
72kg - Magomed YARBILOV (RUS) df. Narek OGANIAN (RUS), 3-2 
77kg -  Pavel LIAKH (BLR) df. Shohei YABIKU (JPN), 11-0 
82kg -  Viktar SASUNOUSKI (BLR) df. Emrah KUS (TUR), 3-3
87kg - Radzik KULIYEU (BLR) df. Dogan GOKTAS (TUR), 2-2 
97kg - Siarhei STARADUB (BLR) df. Suleyman DEMIRCI (TUR), 6-1 
130kg - Osman YILDIRIM (TUR) df. Abdellatif Mohamed Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY), 9-0 

Development

Croatia continues to Train and Develop their Coaches and Referees

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 11:05 By United World Wrestling Press

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POREC, Croatia (June 3) – The Croatian Wrestling Federation continues to add educational activities for their coaches and referees. The previous year, they hosted a Level 2 course on the Introduction to Practice Planning. This year they organized a Level 3 coaching course on Periodization and Coaching Philosophy.  They also organized a Level 1 – Introduction to Referee course for their younger national referees. This year’s courses were conducted on 21-24 May in the beautiful city of Porec and was done in conjunction with Olympic Solidarity and United World Wrestling. 

The coaching course was led by UWW Educator Mr. Nenad Žugaj (CRO).  During the course, the 26 participants developed a better understanding of how periodization works when designing training sessions.  They were able to integrate those concepts and design their own plans.  The participants also focused on developing a coaching philosophy that they can use with their teams.

“The participants were active, I think they relaxed more and more every day and thus became more creative in their answers. I am pleased with the energy that prevailed and the positivity of the participants through jokes but also more serious topics.” said Mr. Žugaj  Eric, one of the coach participants said, “’I really liked the course and I would like to see such educations held more often. I especially liked how we, the coaches and referees, had joint lectures and assignments and were able to give opinions and views from different perspectives. I am looking forward to the next Level 4 course.”

CROParticipants look on doing the education courses held in Croaita during the final week of May. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

The referee course was led by UWW Educator Ms. Edit Dozsa (ITA). The course had 13 participants who focused on the fundamentals of being a good referee.  They focused on the evaluation of holds, how to properly start and end matches, proper referee mechanics, and keeping the athletes safe during bouts.  The referee participants were able to practice their skills through simulated matches and practical assessments. 

Both the coaches and referees had some working sessions together. They were able to analyze the roles of the coaches and of the referees. This helps give them a better understanding of the jobs that they do. They also discussed the importance of athlete safeguarding in wrestling.

“The cooperation with the educators Edit and Nenad was very good and successful. I visited the lectures on a couple of occasions and found them to be educational and interesting. The feedback from our coaches and judges was positive.” said Tin Bregović.

The Croatian Wrestling Federation also hosted a competition at the end of the courses. This competition allowed the coaches and referees to practice some of the skills that they had just learned during the course.