#WrestleZagreb

Tuesday night's European finals set

Tuesday, April 18, 2023 - 09:47 By Eric Olanowski

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ZAGREB, Croatia (April 18) --- The second day of freestyle action at the European Championships kicks off with action at 61kg, 74kg, 86kg, 92kg and 125kg.

FULL EUROPEAN C'SHIP SCHEDULE:
- 11:30 - Qualification rounds
- 16:45 - Semifinals
- 18:00 - Finals

Tuesday's semifinal matchups:

61kg
Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB) vs. Shota PHARTENADZE (GEO) 
Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM) vs. Arman ELOYAN (FRA) 

74kg
Ali Pasha Ruslanovich UMARPASHAEV (BUL) vs. Frank CHAMIZO MARQUEZ (ITA) 
Taimuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) vs. Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO) 

86kg
Myles Nazem AMINE (SMR) vs. Sebastian JEZIERZANSKI (POL) 
Boris MAKOEV (SVK) vs. Dauren KURUGLIEV (GRE) 

92kg
Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO) vs. Feyzullah AKTURK (TUR) 
Ermak KARDANOV (SVK) vs. Osman NURMAGOMEDOV (AZE) 

125kg
Taha AKGUL (TUR) vs. Abraham de Jesus CONYEDO RUANO (ITA) 
Daniel LIGETI (HUN) vs. Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) 

14:31: Akgul trailed 1-0 after the opening period but scored three points in the closing frame to win a close 3-1 battle. He'll likely have Olympic bronze medalist Conyedo Ruano, who is up 3-0 with :20 seconds left.

14:12: Two of the all-time greats in Taha AKGUL (TUR) and Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) are wrestling on Mat B and C, respectively.

14:10: In typical Chamizo fashion, he got going when he needed to and picked up the 7-4 win. He'll meet fellow Olympic bronze medalist Soner DEMIRTAS (TUR) in tonight's semifinals.

14:05: Things are getting heated between Chamizo and Dzhabrail GADZHIEV (AZE). Chamizo has been punched, kicked and had his hair pulled in the opening three minutes.

14:01: We have a pair of world champions on the mat right now. Chamizo is wrestling on Mat B and Abakarov is on Mat C.

13:25: Amine picked up a third takedown on Rubaev and increased his lead to 7-0. It's been a weird match from the Moldovian. He hasn't taken a single shot and there's less than a minute left.

13:20: Olympic bronze medalist Myles Amine is kicking off his quest for a second straight European title on Mat B. He's wrestling Georgii RUBAEV (MDA).

12:49: One of the most talked about storylines coming into the European Championships was the late transfer of Greek Dauren KURUGLIEV (GRE). He just had his first match, where he dominated Patrik PUESPOEKI (HUN), 10-0, in the first period.


12:43: One of the benefits of being seeded is having more time to recover after weigh-ins. The seeded athletes usually have around two hours of extra rest before competing. We're nearing that mark when the top athletes will be making their way to the mat, one after another.

Here are some of the stars that'll be making their way to Mat B soon:
- Bout 108 - Myles Nazem AMINE (SMR) 
- Bout 110 - Taimuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) 
- Bout 111 - Soner DEMIRTAS (TUR) 
- Bout 112 -  Frank CHAMIZO MARQUEZ (ITA) 
- Bout 114 - Taha AKGUL (TUR)  

12:32: Daniel LIGETI (HUN) has a crowd behind him on Mat A. There's at least 20 people--one with a big drum--cheering for the Hungarian Big Man. He's in a tight 2-2 battle with Johannes LUDESCHER (AUT).

12:16: We'll stay on Mat B as U23 European champion Georgi Lyubomirov IVANOV (BUL) is making his way to the mat. He'll wrestle against Alexandr ROMANOV (MDA).

If you're unfamiliar with Ivanov, he's a more compact heavyweight that loves to throw. His go-to move is an arm throw.


12:13:  Abraham de Jesus CONYEDO RUANO (ITA), who won Olympic gold in Tokyo at 97kg, moved up to 125kg a season ago. It's taken nearly two years, but he looks like a true 125kg guy. He picked up a 3-0 opening-round win over Paris KAREPI (ALB).

12:05: There's your upset of the day (keeping in mind we're only a half-hour into the session). Arman ELOYAN (FRA) just took out 2022 European champion Vladimir EGOROV (MKD), 2-2, to set up a matchup with Nikolai OKHLOPKOV (ROU).

11:58: Reigning 57kg world champion Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB) is up now on Mat B. He's wrestling up a weight class, competing at 61kg for the European Championships. He's wrestling Niklas STECHELE (GER).

11:45: We'll kick the morning session off with repechage matches for those who fell on Monday.

#WrestleZagreb

Lee strikes gold as U.S., Iran shine at Zagreb Open

Thursday, February 6, 2025 - 01:15 By Vinay Siwach

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ZAGREB, Croatia (February 5) -- Spencer LEE (USA) did not compete internationally, for circumstances beyond his control, for eight years after winning his U20 world title in 2016. But in a year since he came back in February 2024, Lee has competed in six tournaments in less than a year.

Lee competed at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix in January and won gold. Two weeks later he won the Zagreb Open gold medal at 57kg on Wednesday, marking his debut at a Ranking Series event.

The Paris Olympic silver medalist led a strong performance of the wrestlers from United States as they won two gold medals as six weight classes concluded on day one of the Zagreb Open at Arena Zagreb.

Lee did not look as dominant as he did in Paris before the final but still managed to pull out a good defensive game and win the gold medal with rather ease.

In the final, Lee defeated Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE), 6-2, after a similar win over Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) in the semifinals. He opened the day with an 11-0 drubbing of Luka GVINJILIA (GEO).

"It's good to get competition right now," Lee said. "[It] showed that I'm really not ready yet."

Though Lee was not convinced about his readiness, his coach Dan DENNIS kept pushing Lee and reminded him of the progress he is making bout after bout.

"I think it [progress] comes from being more successful early and then I was in on three shots, kicked out of all three of them," he said. "He's (Dan Dennis) just saying that you just kind of kept progressing. You even got taken down, good counter from him, got to keep wrestling, keep moving."

In the final, Lee scored two takedowns, first one a double-leg and second a counter, as his scoring actions to beat Bazarganov, a bronze medalist at the European Championships last year.

The win takes second-ranked Lee to 43000 ranking points, same as top ranked Rei HIGUCHI (JPN), the gold medalist from Paris Olympics. If Lee can finish top eight at any other Ranking Series or Pan-Am Championships, he will move to the top. However, Lee was not sure if he will be in action internationally before the World Championships.

"I think that ranking tournaments are awesome because good guys come," he said. "The points are obviously a nice bonus to that just because you can get seeded in the bracket. I love competing. Obviously I need more of it. So maybe. This tournament was tough. So good for me."

Zahid VALENCIA (USA)Zahid VALENCIA (USA) won the 86kg gold medal in Zagreb. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Zahid VALENCIA (USA) was the second gold medalist for the U.S. as he won gold medal at 86kg after beating Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0, in the final. Valencia was good with his counters and after building a 4-0 lead at the break, he scored two more takedown in the second period to win the gold medal.

The two bronze medals at this weight class went to Nathan JACKSON (USA) and Trent HIDLAY (USA), making sure all three U.S. wrestlers finish on the podium at the weight class.

Ahmad JAVAN (IRI)Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) defeated Ibrahim KHARI (IRI) 10-0 in the 61kg final. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kostadin Andonov)

Iran wins 2 golds

Iran also won two gold medals but the tournament left it with more questions than answers for the Asian Championships team.

At 61kg, Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) defeated Ebrahim KHARI (IRI) 10-0 to confirm his spot for the Asian Championships. Khari, who won silver at the U20 World Championships last year, failed to give Javan a fight in the final.

Prior to the final, Javan defeated Nashon GARRETT (USA) 7-2 in the quarterfinals and Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) 9-3 in the semifinals.

Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI)Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) defeated Joseph MC KENNA (USA) 8-6 in the 65kg final. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) undoubtedly gave Iran its biggest win of the day as he came back to beat Joseph MC KENNA (USA) 8-6 in the 65kg final.

McKenna got the first two takedowns to lead 4-0 before Ebrahim answered with his own to lead 4-4 at the break. Ebrahim began the second period with another takedown to go ahead 6-4 but with less than a minute to go, McKenna hit ankle pick and transitioned into a leg-attack. He scored a takedown to lead 6-6 on criteria.

In the dying seconds of the bout, Ebrahim  tried a front headpinch but McKenna defended it as he had Ebrahim's one leg locked. However, the Iranian managed to get his leg out of McKenna's hands, he tried to circle back and complete a takedown but McKenna held his knee pad which was penalized as one point, giving the win to Ebrahim 7-6.

The United States challenged that call but it remained and McKenna was docked one more point for lost challenge, making the score 8-6.

Both Iran and the U.S. had two silver medalists as well after Sina KHALILI (IRI) lost the final at 70kg and David CARR (USA) dropped the final at 74kg.

Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE), a former U20 world champion, gave no chance to Sina KHALILI (IRI) in the final and shut him down for a 12-1 win victory.

The weight class also had Paris Olympian and 2023 world champion Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV (HUN) who was stunned in the first bout of the day by Jarrett JACKQUES (USA) who scored a takedown in his 3-2 win Muszukajev.

Carr ran into three-time world medalist Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) in the final and finished with a silver medal at 74kg.

Salkazanov scored a takedown on each side of the break to complete a 4-0 win.

RESULTS

57kg
GOLD: Spencer LEE (USA) df. Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE), 6-2

BRONZE: Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) df. Luka GVINJILIA (GEO), 11-2 
BRONZE: Azamat TUSKAEV (SRB) df. Ahora KHATERI (IRI), 11-0

61kg
GOLD: Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) df. Ebrahim KHARI (IRI), 10-0

BRONZE: Nahshon GARRETT (USA) df. Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO), 16-11
BRONZE: Nuraddin NOVRUZOV (AZE) df. Reza MOMENI (IRI), 8-4

65kg
GOLD: Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) df. Joseph MC KENNA (USA), 8-6

BRONZE: Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA) df. Erik ARUSHANIAN (UKR), 2-2
BRONZE: Ali RAHIMZADA (AZE) df. Goga OTINASHVILI (GEO), 6-0

70kg
GOLD: Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE) df. Sina KHALILI (IRI), 12-1

BRONZE: Austin GOMEZ (MEX) df. Ebrahim ELAHI (IRI), 9-3
BRONZE: Vasile DIACON (MDA) df. James GREEN (USA), via inj. def.

74kg
GOLD: Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) df. David CARR (USA), 4-0

BRONZE: Murad KURAMAGOMEDOV (HUN) df. Kamil RYBICKI (POL), 10-0
BRONZE: Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO) df. Aghanazar NOVRUZOV (AZE), 3-2

86kg
GOLD: Zahid VALENCIA (USA) df. Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0

BRONZE: Nathan JACKSON (USA) df. Matthew FINESILVER (ISR), 12-2
BRONZE: Trent HIDLAY (USA) df. Tariel GAPHRINDASHVILI (GEO), 10-4