#BudaWrestle2018

Secretary General Michel Dusson Headlines Wrestling’s 2018 Hall of Fame Class

Saturday, October 20, 2018 - 15:32 By Tim Foley

Share this article

BUDAPEST (October 20) – United World Wrestling Secretary General Michel DUSSON (FRA) has been inducted into the organization’s 2018 Hall of Fame Class. Dusson, along with two dozen other officials, athletes, and referees received their recognition Friday night at the Budapest Marriott on the eve of the 2018 Wrestling World Championships.

Dusson, whose career in wrestling has spanned sixty years (1958-2018), is a stalwart of the organization having served several presidents while as Secretary General and traveled the world to work on behalf of the sport.

“There are few words that can express the wrestling community’s gratitude to Michel,” said United World Wrestling president Nenad LALOVIC. “He has been a source of strength in the organization and has been a leader on our sport for more than half a century. The Hall of Fame award is in recognition of his unique contributions.”

Dusson has been a Bureau member since 1980 and Secretary General since 1982.  Prior to becoming Secretary General, he was an international referee from 1958 to 1980, officiating the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Dusson previously served as the president of the French Wrestling Federation and later as a CAS Arbitrator (1984-1992).  

“Mr. Dusson has contributed so much to the sport it’s impossible to choose one thing, but he was responsible for initiating the recognition of women wrestling by the IF, which is a very fine legacy,” said bureau member and Hall of Fame Commission chairman Stan DZIEDZIC.

The night included inductees in several categories with careers spanning back to the 1940’s and with numerous Olympic and world championships to their names.

A full ist of entries can be found below, with photos available, here.

 

LEADER

Michel DUSSON (FRA) – Secretary General, United World Wrestling (1982-); Referee, (1958-1980)
Rolle Fernandez GUSTAVO (CUB) – National Team Coach, National Federation President, Bureau Member

REFEREE

Karri TOIVOLA (FIN) – Five Olympic Games, Every world championship 1990-2004; President United World Wrestling Referee Commission ’88-’14; Golden Whistle ‘95

COACH

Bayram SIT (TUR) Freestyle wrestler and coach for Turkish national team
Gannady SAPUNOV (RUS) Greco-Roman head coach from 1979-1990

ORDER OF MERIT

The Order of Merit is a new Hall of Fame category meant to honor those whose extraordinary service advanced the sport of wrestling. The first recipient was Dr. Harold TUNNEMAN (GER) who received the award at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Bernard J FELDMAN, M.D. (USA) Longtime doctor for United World Wrestling at numerous world championships and Olympic Games.

LEGEND

Sagalov ABDULBEKOV (RUS) -- First Olympic champion from the Russian Republic of Dagestan, one of the most prolific wrestling regions in the world. 2x world champion ‘71, ‘73 and ‘69 bronze medalist

WOMEN’S WRESTLING

Ayaka SHODA (JPN) -- 4x world champion
Stanka Zlateva HRISTOVA (BUL) -- 5x world champion 2x Olympic silver medalist
Silvia VAN GUCHT (FRA) -- 3x world champion

GRECO-ROMAN

Lajos KERESTZES (HUN) – Olympic champion, Olympic silver (posthumous)
Kazimierz LIPIEN (POL) Olympic champion1972; 2x world champion ‘73-‘74, 4x silver
Vitelav MACHA (CZE) Olympic champion 1972, Olympic silver ’76 2x World champion 74,77
Sergey MARTINOV (RUS) -- Four-time world champion, Olympic silver ‘92
Gustav FREIJ (SWE) – Olympic gold ’48, silver 1052, bronze ’60; world champion ’53, silver ’50 and bronze ’55 (posthumous)

 

Kenny Monday (USA) is a 1988 Olympic gold medalist and 1992 silver medalist (Photo: Gabor Martin)

FREESTYLE

Istvan KOVACS (HUN) – World champion 79, World bronze 77, Olympic bronze 80
Prodgan GARDZHEV (BUL) – Olympic Gold ‘64, bronze ’68; World Champion ‘63 ‘66, bronze 65
Roman DIMITRIEV (RUS) – Olympic gold ’72, silver ’76; World champion ‘763, Silver ’69, bronze ’70 & ’74 (posthumous)
Kenneth MONDAY (USA) – Gold ’88, Silver ’92; World champion ’89, ‘91
Shigeo NAKATA (JPN) – Olympic champion ’68, World champion ‘67
Monsoor MEHDIZADEH (IRI) – 3x world champion ’61,’62, ’65; Bronze ‘63

#WrestleTirana

Tuesday's U23 World Championship semifinals set

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 - 08:34 By Eric Olanowski

Share this article

TIRANA, Albania (October 24) --- Welcome back to Tirana for the second day of freestyle action at the 2023 U23 World Championships. Tuesday's qualification-semifinal action will include 57kg, 65kg, 70kg, 79kg and 97kg. 

Stars in Action (Tuesday):
79kg - Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO) - '22 U23 world champion, '23 senior world silver
57kg - Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ) - '22 U23 world bronze 
92kg - Islam ILYASOV (AZE) - '22 U23 world bronze

Semifinal matches as they come in:
57kg
Munkh Erdene BATKHUYAG (MGL) vs. Manvel KHNDZRTSYAN (ARM)
Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ) vs. Nachyn MONGUSH (AIN)

65kg
Kumar MOHIT (UWW) vs. Ibragim Charaputinovitch IBRAGIMOV (AIN)
Ziraddin BAYRAMOV (AZE) vs. Goga OTINASHVILI (GEO)

70kg
Inalbek SHERIEV (AIN) vs. Douglas Weber ZAPF (USA)
Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO) vs. Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN)

79kg
Ashraf ASHIROV (AZE) vs. Shamsat TAIR (KAZ)
Dzmitry DZENISENIA (AIN) vs. Magomed MAGOMAEV (AIN)

97kg
Isaac Whitman TRUMBLE (USA) vs. Sergey SARGSYAN (ARM)
Sahil SAHIL (UWW) vs. Radu LEFTER (MDA)

15:14: Ziraddin BAYRAMOV (AZE) and Brock David HARDY (USA) are in a tight race over on Mat B. Bayramov was up 4-2, shot a head outside single, and exposed Hardy twice, extending his lead to 8-2. The American corner challenged one of the exposures, sending it to referee review. 

After review, the call on the mat was reversed, but it didn't matter. Bayramov went on to score eight additional points in the final minute, grabbing the semifinal berth with a 14-11 win.

14:36: Sorry for the delay as I was working out some technical issues. I'll be posting the semifinals as they come in. 

14:24: This'll be the last 1/8 final match before we roll into the quarterfinals.

14:14: Below, you'll find the 35-point match between Aden SAKYBAEV (KGZ) and Frederik NORTJE (RSA) that I was talking about earlier. Watch and enjoy!

13:56: Nachyn MONGUSH (AIN) continues to roll through the 57kg field, scoring a 7-1 win over Yerassyl MUKHTARULY (KAZ) in the 1/8 finals.

13:41: In the battle of U23 world champs, four takedowns--one in the first and three in the second--propelled Magomaev past Gamkrelidze.

13:14: Defending champion Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO) will make his '23 U23 world debut on Mat C next. He'll wrestle '21 U23 world champion Magomed MAGOMAEV (AIN).

13:02: Ibragim IBRAGIMOV (AIN), the ’22 Russian National champion and ’23 Russian National silver medalist, picked up a 10-0 first-round win over Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA). He’ll wrestle Abdullah TOPRAK (TUR) in the 65kg 1/8 finals on Mat B in about an hour.

12:26: I've been around the sport for a long time, and I don't think I've ever seen one individual score 24 points in a six-minute bout, but Aden SAKYBAEV (KGZ) just did so against Frederik NORTJE (RSA). The pair combined for 35 points, trading blows back and forth in their qualification-round meeting, but it was Sakybaev who ultimately came out on top, 24-11.

12:03: Although he's not a world medalist just yet, Nachyn MONGUSH (AIN) is a guy we'll be keeping an eye on today. He's a guy who has been working his way into the second tier of 57kg guys on Russia's depth chart. In 2021, he fell to Olympic champion Zaur UGUEV in the Russian National finals, which helped book his ticket to the post-COVID European Championships in Warsaw. In Poland, he reached the gold-medal bout but fell to Turkiye's Suleyman ATLI and settled for silver.

Today, Mongush opened up his day with a 10-0 win against Luka GVINJILIA (GEO).

11:47: That's what wrestling fans pay to see. I'll have the match up shortly, but Sagar JAGLAN (UWW) and Eugeniu MIHALCEAN (MDA) just combined for 28 points, with the United World Wrestling athlete coming out on top, 16-12.

11:19: The biggest star that we'll be watching today is Georgia's budding star Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), who returns to the U23 World Championships looking to defend his title from a year ago.

Since winning that U23 world title, Gamkrelidze has really emerged as one of wrestling's brightest young stars will loads of potential. Fellow Georgian great Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) told me in our hotel lobby at the World Championships, "This guy is going to be great. He's good right now, but ge needs to have confidence in his wrestling--then he will be great."

Here's Gamkrelidze's resume over the last year:
- '23 Zagreb Open Ranking Series bronze 
- '23 Kyrgyz Ranking Series gold 
- '23 Hungarian Ranking Series silver 
- '23 Senior world silver 

11:13: This will be our final repechage bout of the morning, and we'll get back to championships action.

10:30: Good morning again, wrestling fans. We're going to run through some repechage bout before welcoming in today's competitors. It should take another half hour or so.