#WrestleTirana

U23 World Championships 2024: Best storylines in Tirana

Monday, October 14, 2024 - 11:45 By Vinay Siwach

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TIRANA, Albania (October 14) -- The U23 World Championships will kick off in Tirana next Monday with 661 wrestlers participating. Not only some returning champions are entered, but a few Paris 2024 Olympic wrestlers are also participating in the October 21-27 tournament.

Iran, which missed the tournament last year, will hopefully be there for the U23 World Championships.

Here are a few top storylines to follow from Tirana

Mitchell MESENBRINK (USA)Mitchell MESENBRINK (USA) is one of the favorites at 74kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)

Freestyle

- The 61kg defending champion Bashir MAGOMEDOV (AIN) will be the favorite for the gold medal. After winning the gold medal last year, Magomedov won the U23 European Championships this year. In the seven bouts in the two tournaments, Magomedov has won five bouts via technical superiorities. 

- Another returning champion is Ibragim IBRAGIMOV (AIN), defending his 65kg gold medal. Last year, Ibragimov gave up only one point in the tournament over five bouts. He is likely to dominate this year too. However, former U20 world champion Mohit KUMAR (IND) will look to avenge the semifinal loss to Ibragimov. Kumar failed to medal and finished fifth.

Another U20 world champion coming to Tirana is Umidjon JALOLOV (UZB). After winning the gold medal in Sofia in 2022, Jalolov is still trying to return to the top. He also suffered a back injury and recovery has been a tough road for him. He tried qualifying for the Paris Olympics but failed to do so. Bilol SHARIP UULU (KGZ) and Abdullah TOPRAK (TUR) will be in the medal run as well.

- Perhaps the most competitive category, the 74kg weight class will see Dzhabrail GADZHIEV (AZE), Ali REZAEI (IRI), Kota TAKAHASHI (JPN), Orozobek TOKTOMAMBETOV (KGZ) and Mitchell MESENBRINK (USA) among other stars. The last three U20 world champions are entered. Gadzhiev won the U20 gold in 2022, Mesenbrink in 2023 and Rezaei in 2024. Takahashi is the senior Asian champion and Toktomabetov is the U23 Asian champion.

- Unbeaten at the international level Ibragim KADIEV (AIN) will start as the favorite win the gold medal at 86kg. Kadiev has two U20 world titles, including the 2024 edition. Former U20 world champion Rakhim MAGAMADOV (FRA) will be hoping for a successful run at the U23 level. Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), who won bronze last year and participated in the Paris Olympics is competing as well.

- Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI) will be in Albania for his third U23 World Championships. He won bronze in 2021 and gold in 2022. He will be the favorite for the gold with Mustafagadzhi MALACHDIBIROV (AIN) offering competition. Malachdibirov won the gold medal at the U20 World Championships this year.

- 92kg world champion Rizabek AITMUKHAN (KAZ) continues his successful run at 97kg and will be competing for the U23 world title. He won the U20 World Championships gold in September and this will be his second U23 World Championships, having finishing fifth in 2022.

Oleksandra KHOMENETS (UKR)Oleksandra KHOMENETS (UKR), a former world silver medalist, will be returning to international after more than a year. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Martin Gabor)

Women's Wrestling

- Defending champion at 50kg Umi ITO (JPN) will be in action after one year. Ito has been behind Yui SUSAKI (JPN) and Remina YOSHIMOTO (JPN) domestically but has been a force at the international level. She is yet to lose a bout and has won U17, U20 and U23 world titles.

- The return of Oleksandra KHOMENETS (UKR) will be a big news in Tirana. She last competed at the European Championships in 2023 and finished second. However, she has been nursing an injury for the last one year. She competed at the Valamar Cup and won the gold medal. But she will be test in Tirana as Paris Olympian and European champion Emma MALMGREN (SWE) is also competing.

- Irina RINGACI (MDA) will look to defend the gold medal at 65kg. She will also look to put her disappointing campaign at the Paris Olympics where she finished 10th. This will be her fourth U23 World Championships, the first being in 2019. She has two bronze medals and one gold medal.

- Ami ISHII (JPN) will be hoping to win her second career world title. She won the U20 gold in 2022 but finished second at the senior level. She won the Paris Olympic quota for Japan but failed to win the playoff in Japan as Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) beat her. She will be competing at 68kg.

- Croatia's first-ever world champion in wrestling, Veronika VILK (CRO) will be competing at her first U23 World Championships. Volk created history in 2023 when she won the U17 World Championships gold medal, becoming first wrestling world champion in Croatian history.

Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI)Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI) defeated Riza KAYAALP (TUR) in June. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kostadin Andonov)

Greco-Roman

- The only Paris Olympic medalist competing in Tirana is Turpal BISULTANOV (DEN). The bronze medalist at 87kg will be in Tirana hoping to win his first world title at any level. He will be in a strong field with U23 world champion at 82kg Aues GONIBOV (AIN) moving up to 87kg. Former U20 world champion Vigen NAZARYAN (ARM), Joju SAMADOV (AZE),  Achiko BOLKVADZE (GEO), Yasin Ali YAZDI (IRI), Marcel STERKENBURG (NED) and Exauce MUKUBU (NOR) also competing.

- The 130kg weight class may throw some interesting competition. Fardin HEDAYATI (IRI), who defeated Riza KAYAALP (TUR) in Budapest in June, will be the favorite to win the gold medal. However, Mykhailo VYSHNYVETSKYI (UKR), who defeated Hedayati in the 2022 U20 World Championships final, is also competing. Last year, Pavel HLINCHUK (AIN) won the gold medal at 97kg but is moving up to 130kg, a weight class he won a Paris Olympic quota as well. Muhammet BAKIR (TUR) will also be a big medal threat.
 

marketing, #development

Wiebe inspires next gen at UWW-IIS camp in India

Saturday, February 15, 2025 - 08:21 By Vinay Siwach

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KARNATAKA, India (February 15) -- Erica WIEBE (CAN), the 2016 Rio Olympic champion, usually doesn't take it around but for her India trip, she made sure to pack her gold medal from Rio.

Call it luck, the gold medal turned out to be the highlight of her trip.

In India for a masterclass at the international women's wrestling camp organized by the Inspire Institute of Sport and United World Wrestling, Wiebe got mobbed by 50 young wrestlers as she showed them her medal. Wrestlers from Jordan, Estonia, South Africa, Mauritius, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and hosts India, all part of the camp, wanted to touch it, feel it and may be keep it.

"To see the looks on their faces and in their bodies responding to what it felt like to hold the kind of weight of your dream in your hand, I got emotional with them," Wiebe says. "It was so surreal for me to share the medal with the athletes because it brought me back to where I was at that time, and how it felt like winning an Olympic gold medal was just like this impossible dream that would never happen. It's really important for me to come here and do things like this to remind these women that, these crazy, unimaginable things are real. They can happen and to encourage them to continue to dream big."

No wrestler could walk away without a photo. A few even got emotional as they took the medal in their hands.

"God, I don't know how many times I have dreamt about that in the night," U17 world bronze medalist Lisette BOTTKER (EST) says. "When I got the medal on my hands, I was also trying not to cry but the feeling is awesome."

Maya QUTAISHAT (JOR) adds, "It seemed like the dreams of most of us wrestlers in front of us. Like getting the Olympic gold medal."

UWW and IIS organized the camp for wrestlers from around the world from January 15 to 31. It was hosted by IIS at it's world class facility in Vijayanagar, a township in Ballari district of north Karnataka, India.

Wiebe held a masterclass for the wrestlers along with training sessions with IIS head coach Amir TAVOKKALIAN, a former world silver medalist and Asian champion.

"It's a really amazing development opportunity for a young wrestlers from all around the world," Wiebe said. "There's several nations here, and it's so incredible to see the level of talent and passion of these young athletes. At the camp this week, we've had a number of sessions kind of leveraging different unique styles, having the different countries lead different warmups. We're here at the Inspire Institute of Sport which is a phenomenal world class facility. We don't have anything like this in Canada, there's very few facilities like this in the world. It's really exciting to see that India has this.

"Not only that, they have this for their athletes training, but they've invited many countries around the world to share in this moment and to leverage the resources that are available here on this site."

IIS President Manisha MALHOTRA also visited the camp and threw some light on the partnership with UWW to grow the sport.

"We're very passionate about the sport from an Indian ecosystem point of view," Malhotra said. "But what we realized is that, we need to start looking outside India to bring in expertise, look in partnerships. With that in mind, I think there was no better partner than UWW.

"They’ve done a phenomenal job with wrestling worldwide and growing the sport very well. The idea was to have a very good mix of people, whether they are from a very developed wrestling nation or from an underdeveloped wrestling nation, it needs to be a common platform where people can extract some sort of benefit for everybody. That was the main premise with what we worked with."

Apart from the training, wrestlers at the camp used the high performance center at IIS and indulged in sightseeing.

"Training here is very strong. We come out of the mat sweating a lot, and it's very tough," Qutaishat said, "The girls here are very high level. When I wrestle them, I learn a lot of techniques and so many things that I usually don't see back in my country. But I get to explore more as I go out to the camps."

Wiebe had an advice for all wrestlers, especially coming from smaller countries to the development camps.

"I told the athletes the goals are: to have fun, and to get better," Wiebe said. "And how do you do that? You find strength on the edge of failure. You have to put yourself on the line. Wrestling is not easy. You see it on the athletes bodies. They're pushing themselves to their limits, physically and mentally. They are tired. I remember being that way as an athlete. You always have to find another level to yourself."