#UWWAwards2022

Susaki, Abakarov, Makhmudov, Sharshenbekov named UWW's History Makers of the Year

By Eric Olanowski

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 21) -- After their history-making feats in 2022, Yui SUSAKI (JPN), Zelimhan ABAKAROV (ALB), Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ) and Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ). have been named UWW History Makers of the year.

Coming into the season, Susaki had already won Olympic gold and world titles at the U17, U20 and senior levels. In October, the Japanese superstar grabbed U23 world gold and became the first-ever wrestler to win wrestling’s Grand Slam.

Abakarov, at 29 years old, capitalized on his first opportunity to wrestle at the world championships with five dominant wins – highlighted by a 7-2 win over defending world champ Thomas GILMAN (USA) en route to becoming Albania’s first-ever world champ.

Heading into Belgrade, Kyrgyzstan was 0-3 in gold medal matches at the senior world championships. But Makhmudov only needed 2:06 to rewrite Kyrgyzstan’s history books with a one-sided 8-0 win over Zoltan LEVAI (HUN) in the 77kg finals.

48 hours later, Sharshenbekov followed in his countryman’s footsteps and used Makhmudov’s gold as motivation to win Kyrgyzstan’s second-ever world title. After falling twice in the world finals, there was no way he would to be denied a third shot to win world gold.

Your 2022 History Makers of the Year, Susaki, Abakarov, Makhmudov and Sharshenbekov.

Development

Evaluation of Holds course now on the UWW Academy

By United World Wrestling Press

COSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (February 13) --- The Development Department and Referee Commission launched their 2nd course centered around the rules of Olympic wrestling and refereeing.  The course is entitled Evaluation of Holds and can be found on the UWW Academy.  Participants will learn how the score is determined for various actions.  During the course, they will focus on the 3 questions that referees must ask when an action occurs. The answers to those questions often determine the points that would be scored for an action.  The course will also examine other scoring situations such as takedowns and correct holds.  However, those topics will be covered in more detail in future courses.

The Evaluation of Holds course will begin with background information and the rules which include video examples.  Then the course will provide 10 specific video examples along with explanations.  Next the participants will practice their video analysis with 10 videos.  The course will finish with a 15-video quiz.  This is the same format as the Attack vs Counterattack course.

The UWW Academy is the official educational platform for United World Wrestling.  There are numerous courses on coaching, referees, rules, sports administration and beach wrestling.  There are also additional resources, performance analysis metrics from major UWW events, videos, and the Wrestle4Fun curriculum.  The Academy is free and available to all participants.

To get started and create your free profile, please visit  https://academy.uww.org/.