#WrestleZagreb

Wednesday night's women's wrestling semifinals set

By Eric Olanowski

ZAGREB, Croatia (April 19) -- The third day of the European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. Women's wrestling will kick off with 50kg, 55kg, 59kg, 68kg and 76kg wrestlers taking the mat.

WATCH LIVE | MATCH ORDER

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

Wednesday semifinal matchups:

50kg
Oksana LIVACH (UKR) vs. Miglena Georgieva SELISHKA (BUL) 
Anna LUKASIAK (POL) vs. Mariya STADNIK (AZE) 

55kg
Katarzyna KRAWCZYK (POL) vs. Andreea Beatrice ANA (ROU) 
Annika WENDLE (GER) vs. Erika BOGNAR (HUN) 

59kg
Yuliia TKACH (UKR) vs. Alyona KOLESNIK (AZE) 
Anastasia NICHITA (MDA)  vs. Eda TEKIN (TUR) 

68kg
Alla BELINSKA (UKR) vs. Winner 217
Adela HANZLICKOVA (CZE) vs. Yuliana Vasileva YANEVA (BUL) 

76kg
Martina KUENZ (AUT) vs. Cynthia Vanessa VESCAN (FRA) 
Yasemin ADAR (TUR) vs. Anastasiia OSNIACH (UKR) 

13:28: The morning session is rolling by. We only have five matches left and the session is done. The semifinal matches are listed above as they come in.

13:08: There's the upset of the day. Cynthia Vanessa VESCAN (FRA) just upset European champion Epp MAE (EST), 3-2, setting up a semifinal match against Martina KUENZ (AUT).

12:58: That was quick. Adar only needed 75 seconds to pick up the 10-0 win over Axente. She'll meet the winner of Agoro PAPAVASILEIOU (GRE)  Anastasiia OSNIACH (UKR) 

12:53: Mariya STADNIK (AZE) picked up her second win of the day, a 9-3 victory over Julie Martine SABATIE (FRA), but it wasn't in normal form. She didn't dominate and looked a little gassed after the bout.

Either way, she reached the semifinals, where she'll meet 2022 world bronze medalist Lukasiak.

12:37: World bronze medalist Anna LUKASIAK (POL) is on deck on Mat A. She'll wrestle Gabija DILYTE (LTU) for a spot in the 50kg semifinals. 

12:35: Yasemin ADAR (TUR) kicks off her quest for a sixth European title in three matches on Mat B. She'll wrestle Catalina AXENTE (ROU). This'll be the first meeting of their careers.

12:22: That's a statement win from Yuliana Vasileva YANEVA (BUL). She just 10-0 blanked U23 world and European champion Nesrin BAS (TUR).

Turkiye is off to a rough start today. They've had two matches, with both ending in technical superiorty losses.

11:55: Four-time Olympic medalist Mariya STADNIK (AZE) returns to the European Championships and marks it with a 14-4 win over defending champion Evin DEMIRHAN (TUR). Stadnik is gunning for her eighth Euro gold medal.

11:30: Welcome to day three of the European Championships here in Zagreb. After the repechage rounds of freestyle, we jump right into the women's wrestling.

Development

New Referee and Rules Courses coming to the UWW Academy

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 9) --- The Development Department and Referee Commission will launch a series of courses centered around Olympic wrestling and refereeing rules. Evaluating holds and situations are not always easy and can be very complex.  These courses are designed to highlight specific and more complicated rules in hopes of providing a better understanding of how situations are being evaluated. Over the next year, will be 10 courses developed and published on the UWW Academy site.

“We are excited to announce new courses on the UWW Academy Platform, designed to elevate refereeing standards and promote excellence across all levels. These courses cover essential topics such as attack-counterattack actions, evaluation of holds, takedown and control, and out-of-bounds situations," said Antonio Silvestri. "As Head of the Refereeing Commission, I encourage all referees—experienced or starting out—to take advantage of these courses. Continuous learning is key to our success, and these courses will help us maintain the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and professionalism in every match. Let's keep raising the bar together." 

The first course on Attack vs Counterattack situations has been published on the Academy site. Attack vs Counterattack situations are referees' most complicated and challenging situations to evaluate. This course will try to highlight how these situations are evaluated and what questions referees must answer during an action. While this course and the others are centered around referees, they are available and encouraged to be completed by all wrestling stakeholders.

The Attack vs Counterattack 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. All the courses that will be published will follow a similar format.

The UWW Academy is the official educational platform for United World Wrestling. It offers numerous courses on coaching, referees, rules, sports administration, and beach wrestling. The academy also offers additional resources, performance analysis metrics from major UWW events, videos, and the Wrestle4Fun curriculum. It is free and available to all participants. To get started and create your free profile, please visit  https://academy.uww.org/.