#WrestleRome

Ten Returning Pellicone Champs Competing at #WrestleRome

Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 15:50 By Eric Olanowski

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The road to #Tokyo202One Olympic Games kicks off on the coast of Italy, in the port city of Ostia, March 4-7. Ten of last year’s 30 Matteo Pellicone champions return to Italy with their sights set on gold for a second consecutive year.

Greco-Roman will play host to five wrestlers, spread across four weights, who are looking to defend their Ranking Series golds from ’20. They are: Mohamed ELSAYED (EGY), Zoltan LEVAI (HUN), Singh GURPREET (IND), Viktor LORINCZ (HUN) and Abdellatif MOHAMED (EGY). 

Levai (77kg), Lorincz (87kg) and Mohamed (130kg) will compete at their title-winning weights from last year, while El Sayed and Gurpreet are moving down to Olympic weight classes. The Egyptian is dropping from 72kg to 67kg, while the Indian wrestlers is joining Levai down at 77kg after winning 82kg gold a year ago.

In freestyle, the dynamic duo of Kumar RAVI (IND) and Bajrang PUNIA (IND) will be looking to reach the top of the Pala Pellicone podium in back-to-back years. They’ll wrestle at 61kg and 65kg, respectively. 

In women’s wrestling, Odunayo ADEKUOROYE (NGR), Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ) and Erica WIEBE (CAN) are the trio ’20 champs who are on a quest to bag gold for a second straight year. They’ll compete at 57kg, 62kg and 76kg, respectively. 

Here are the ’20 Matteo Pellicone gold-medal matches from the ten returning champions that'll be in action March 4-8:

Freestyle 
61kg: Kumar RAVI( IND)
65kg: Bajrang PUNIA (IND)  

Greco-Roman
67kg: Mohamed ELSAYED (EGY)
77kg: Zoltan LEVAI (HUN)
77kg:  Singh GURPREET (IND)
87kg: Viktor LORINCZ (HUN)
130kg: Abdellatif MOHAMED (EGY) 

Women's Wrestling
57kg: Odunayo ADEKUOROYE (NGR)
62kg: Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ)
76kg: Erica Elizabeth WIEBE (CAN)

#WrestleZagreb

Wrestling Calendar 2025: World, continental championships live on UWW+

Tuesday, January 7, 2025 - 10:09 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (January 7) -- The 2025 wrestling season for United World Wrestling will kick off with the 1st Ranking Series event -- Zagreb Open -- in Croatia. The event will be the first of the four Ranking Series scheduled this year.

The season-opening Zagreb Open will be held from February 5 to 9 at the Arena Zagreb, the venue for the senior World Championships later in September. The second stop of the Ranking Series will be in Tirana, Albania. The Muhamet Malo tournament will be held from February 26 to March 2.

The focus will shift to championships after the first two Ranking Series events and kicking off the continental tour will be Oceania Championships in Pago Pago, American Samoa from March 20 to 22. The Asian Championships will be held in Amman, Jordan from March 25 to 30.

April will see the European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia from April 7 to 13 before the tour continues for African Championships in Casablanca, Morocco from April 29 to May 4. Pan-American Championships will be held in Monterrey, Mexico from May 8 to 11, marking and end of the senior continental championships.

The Ranking Series will return in May, with Mongolia as the third stop. The Ulaanbaatar Open will be held from May 29 to June 1 in the Mongolian capital. The final stop will be the prestigious Polyák Imre, Varga János & Kozma István Memorial tournament from July 17 to 20. As is the norm, it will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

The World Championships calendar will begin with the U17 World Championships in Athens, Greece from July 28 to August 3. The championships is returning to Greece after seven years. Close to a month later, the U20 World Championships will be held in Sofia, Bulgaria from August 18 to 24. The same tournament was held in Sofia in 2022.

The mega event for 2025 -- World Championships -- will be held in Zagreb from September 13 to 21 at the Zagreb Arena in the capital city of Croatia. This is the first time that Croatia will be hosting the big event.

Budapest, Hungary will host the Veteran World Championships from October 7 to 12 and the season's final World Championships will be the U23, to be held in Novi Sad, Serbia from October 20 to 26.

Apart from these events, the UWW calendar will see the age-group continental championships, beach wrestling events and numerous other international tournaments throughout 2025.

All Ranking Series, continental championships and World Championships will be live and exclusive on UWW+.

For a detailed calendar, visit uww.org/events