#WrestleAmman

U20 World Championships Greco semis set

Friday, August 18, 2023 - 07:19 By Vinay Siwach

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AMMAN, Jordan (August 18) -- The attention turns to Greco-Roman with five weight classes -- 55kg, 63kg, 77kg, 87kg and 130kg -- in action in Amman. The evening session will also see the women's wrestling world champions crowned.

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Here are the semifinals for the Greco-Roman evening session

55kg
Nuristan SUIORKULOV (KGZ) vs. Iskhar KURBAYEV (KAZ)
Ali AHMADI VAFA (IRI) vs. Farid SADIKHLI (AZE)

63kg
Zhantoro MIRZALIEV (KGZ) vs. Dinislam SAGITZHAN (KAZ)
Komei SAWADA (JPN) vs. Ahmadreza MOHSEN NEZHAD (IRI)

77kg
Alireza ABDEVALI (IRI) vs. Tornike MIKELADZE (GEO)
Erlan MARS UULU (KGZ) vs. Alexandru SOLOVEI (MDA)

87kg
Abolfazl CHOUBANI (IRI) vs. Vigen NAZARYAN (ARM)
Achiko BOLKVADZE (GEO) vs. Tourpal MAGAMADOV (FRA)

130kg
Wenhao JIANG (CHN) vs. Achilleas CHRYSIDIS (GRE)
Fekry EISSA (EGY) vs. Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI) 

14:30: Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI) blanks Talip CIFTCI (TUR) 8-0 in the 130kg quarterfinals. He won a silver medal last year. But so far, he has looked unstoppable in Amman

14:15: No stopping Alexandru SOLOVEI (MDA) as he moves into the semifinals with another technical superiority win, this time over Mihael LUKAC (CRO). Par terre domination peaks

13:50: Returning bronze medalist at 130kg Aden ATTAO (USA) with a thrilling 8-7 win over former U20 European champion Koppany LASZLO (HUN). Attao was trailing 7-5 but scored a takedown against a tiring Laszlo which the Hungary team challenged but lost.

13:35: Yurik HOVEYAN (ARM) moves into the quarterfinals at 63kg with a resounding 12-2 win over Matej REBIC (CRO). At 130kg, returning silver medalist Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI) gets an 8-0 shutout against Aramayis HARUTYUNYAN (ARM).

13:15: Absolute domination from Iran so far in Greco-Roman. All three wrestlers who have wrestled so far have started with a win. Two got byes to pre-quarters. Ahmadreza MOHSEN NEZHAD (IRI) and Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI) coming up now

12:50: Clutch from Ali AHMADI VAFA (IRI) as he gets a takedown in the final 15 seconds over returning silver medalist Denis MIHAI (ROU) and then throws him for four to get a 6-5 win. Mihai is devasted here.

12:30: Vigen NAZARYAN (ARM) and Achiko BOLKVADZE (GEO) remain on a collision course as both win their respective pre-quarterfinals. Nazaryan won over Nurassyl AMANALY (KAZ) while Bolkvadze beat Tomislav BRKAN (CRO). In the quarterfinals, Nazaryan has David ANDREASIAN (AIN) and Bolkvadze faces Asan ZHANYSHOV (KGZ)

12:15: Abolfazl CHOUBANI (IRI) gets an 8-0 win over Ivaylo IVANOV (BUL) to move into the 87kg quarterfinals. He will now take on Wyatt VOELKER (USA) who defeated Mohit KHOKHAR (IND).

12:00: The crowd cannot stop cheering for Suhib ALHASANAT (JOR) as he pins Rati KHOZREVANIDZE (GEO)! Alhasant was put in par terre but as Khozrevanidze tried a back throw, he fell on his back and Alhasant pinned him. Georgia called for a leg foul but it was assessed clean on review. The results can have huge complications for Georgia in the team title race

11:53: One for the vault that! U20 European champion Yurik HOVEYAN (ARM) survives a comeback from Faraim MUSTAFAYEV (AZE) to win 7-7 at 63kg. From par terre in the first period, Hoveyan scored exposure and a four-pointer while Mustafayev managed only two turns and two stepouts, giving Hoveyan the bigger technique advantage and the win. Hoveyan had defeated Mustafayev 8-5 in the quarterfinals at U20 Euros 

11:45: Emre MUTLU (TUR), who missed out on a medal last year, wins 9-4 against Maxim SARMANOV (MDA) at 55kg. Mutlu is a former U23 European champion and a senior European bronze medalist

11:32: Ali AHMADI VAFA (IRI) goes big from par terre and finishes his opening bout against  Lukas BENZING (GER) at 55kg via technical superiority. On Mat B, Alisher GANIEV (UZB) wins 9-0 over Alibek AMIROV (AIN)

11:20: Former U17 world champion and returning silver medalist from 72kg Alexandru SOLOVEI (MDA) has opened his campaign with a 4-0 win over Abdulmasih ABDULMASIH (AIN) at 77kg.

10:45: Achiko BOLKVADZE (GEO) goes big and high and finishes the bout 10-0 against Kareem ELDESOUKY (EGY) at 87kg. Unparalleled athleticism from the wrestler

10:35: Returning world champion Vigen NAZARYAN (ARM) gets a first-period technical superiority win over Daisei ISOE (JPN) at 87kg. He will have silver medalist Abofazl CHOUBANI (IRI) and Achiko BOLKVADZE (GEO) as his biggest rivals.

10:00: Welcome to day five of the U20 World Championships in Amman. Greco-Roman will be in action as we move toward the final three days of the tournament.

#WrestleParis

Paris 2024: For France wrestling trio, Olympics come home. Literally

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 - 07:40 By United World Wrestling Press

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PARIS (July 17) -- To compete at a home Olympics can be an unparalleled career high for the best of athletes. Even more so for the three French wrestlers, for whom the Games have come home — quite literally.

When Koumba LARROQUE, Ameline DOUARRE and Mamadassa SYLLA check in at the Athletes Village in Seine Saint Denis and step on the mat at the picturesque venue in Champs de Mars, it’ll mark a culmination of their stories that took shape just a stone's throw away, at the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

 Koumba LARROQUE (FRA)
Koumba LARROQUE (FRA) at Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

Indeed, there are many wrestling strongholds in France. Dijon, roughly 320 km from Paris, is one such hub that is home to many young stars. And quite a few of them train at France’s National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance — commonly known as INSEP, a facility that’s also designated as the United World Wrestling Center.

However, the presence of wrestling stars who have honed their skills at Bagnolet, the famous Parisian club, in the French team is steeped in symbolism. Not least because it is located close to the two Olympic landmark sites.

But by competing at the home Games, the trio will also carry forward the commune’s century-long wrestling tradition, which also captures the growth of the sport between the two Olympics Paris has hosted.

Ameline DOUARRE (FRA)Ameline DOUARRE (FRA) will compete at Paris Olympics in 62kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

It was exactly a hundred years ago, in 1924, that the Association Sportive et Gymnasnique de Bagnolet reinvented and transformed itself into a sports club, kick-starting a revolution of sorts in the area not too far from Paris’s city center.

Nothing nails down Bagnolet’s wrestling culture more than the fact that, according to a survey on the club’s website, two out of three youngsters wrestled. However, it was only after an agreement was reached with the department of Seine Saint Denis — the heart of the Games where the Athletes Village is located — that the sport really took off and the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93 came into being in its current form in 2005.

From Mélonin NOUMONVI, the 2014 Greco-Roman world champion, to Olympic gold medalist Steeve GUENOT and his bronze medal-winning brother Christophe as well as the latest sensation, the former U20 and U23 world champion Larroque – many French champions have spent key years of their development at the club.

But Larroque, Douarre and Sylla have a chance to do something none of their predecessors could: compete in their own backyard.

Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA)Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA) after his qualification for the 2024 Paris Games. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Sylla, who discovered wrestling at age 15, finished fifth at the European Championships this year and will compete in the 67 kg Greco-Roman category. Douarre is a last-minute entrant to the draw after withdrawals in the 62 kg weight class.

Sylla, who was a second-choice wrestler for the qualification tournament in Baku, became the first wrestler from France to qualify in Grec-Roman since the 2012 London Games, the last time France won an Olympic medal in wrestling, a bronze by 2008 Beijing champion Steve GUENOT (FRA).

Larroque, though, remains the flag-bearer for French wrestling at the Paris Olympics. Introduced to wrestling at age 9, a youth Olympics medallist at 16, and U23 world champion when she was 19 and a senior worlds silver medallist in the same year, Larroque was destined for greatness.

But her career arc suffered a setback. An injury in the 2018 World Championship final meant she was away from the mat for almost a year. Once she recovered, Larroque looked like a shadow of her past self as she could not manage any podium finishes. And although she made it to Tokyo, she was eliminated after the first round itself.

Paris provides the 68kg wrestler a path to redemption. To finish among medals in front of her family and friends — and a short distance away from her club — would undoubtedly be an unparalleled high in Larroque’s career.