WARSAW (July 24) – World champion Khetik TSABOLOV (RUS) returned to 70kg and won handily on Friday but fellow Tashkent titlist Soslan RAMONOV (RUS) had settle for a bronze medal at the Ziolkowski International freestyle wrestling tournament.

Tsabolov posted a pair of falls on his way to the final at Ursynow Arena and then eased past European Games bronze medal winner Yakup GOR (TUR), 6-2, in a rematch of their gold medal final at the world championships in Taskhent last September.

Meanwhile, Ramonov got off on the wrong foot in first round at 65kg, getting tripped up by European Games silver medalist Frank CHAMIZO (ITA), 4-3, in a late scramble for the takedown. Ramonov bounced back for the bronze medal.

Chamizo took the 65kg crown with another late scramble in the championship final and a point off the 30-second clock to defeat George BUCUR (ROU), 3-3 with the last point.

Later, asked about his day bumping off the reigning world champ and then sneaking past Bucur yet again.

“When I saw I had the world champion the first match, I knew I would have to careful,” said Chamizo, adding “But this is a tournament like training and not the world championships so I was able to relax some.”

As for Bucur, who defeated most recently at the European Games in June, Chamizo, “He’s so strong.  We’ve wrestled three times and it seems like he gets stronger everytime.”

Meanwhile, world silver medalist Sosuke TAKATANI (JPN) advanced to the 74kg finals with four technical falls, but could not break through the hard rock defense of Alireza GHASEMI (IRI) and fell, 4-0, to the recent national team trials winner from Iran.

Ghasemi was later joined in the winner’s circle by 97kg titlist Tahan ABBAS (IRI), making Iran the only country with two winners on the first day of action in Poland.

Yuki TAKAHASHI (JPN), a runner-up in Poland last year, scored a go-behind takedown in the last 15 seconds of the 57kg final for a 3-1 win over 2014 junior world champ Azamat TUSKAEV (RUS) for Japan’s only gold medal for the day.

Wrestling continues Saturday and Sunday with Greco-Roman action in the prestigious Pytlasinski International and the increasingly popular Poland Open of women’s wrestling.

For complete results: http://sportzona.pl/app/events/view/wrestling/907/?lang=english

57kg (15 entries)
GOLD: Yuki TAKAHASHI (JPN) df. Azamat TUSKAEV (RUS), 3-1
Bronze: Zoheir EL-OUARRAQUE (FRA) df. Emanuel KRAUSE (GER), 4-0
Bronze: Georgi VANGELOV (BUL) df. Juan Pablo GONZALEZ (ESP), 4-3

61kg (12 entries)
GOLD: Vladimir DUBOV (BUL) df. Masakazu KAMOI (JPN), 6-3
Bronze: Beka LOMTADZE (GEO) df. Radoslav VELIKOV (BUL), 9-1
Bronze: Munir AKTAS (TUR) df. Recep TOPAL (TUR), 2-1

65kg (15 entries)
GOLD: Frank CHAMIZO (ITA) df. George BUCUR (ROU), 3-3
Bronze: Tomotsugu ISHIDA (JPN) df. LING Haiwei (CHN), 4-1
Bronze: Soslan RAMONOV (RUS) df. Andrey KVIATKOVSKI (UKR), 8-0

70kg (22 entries)
GOLD: Khetik TSABOLOV (RUS) df. Yakup GOR (TUR), 6-2
Bronze: German USTINOV (RUS) df. Oleksey MELNIK (UKR), 10-7
Bronze: Mustafa KAYA (TUR) df. Sharap GITINOV (RUS), 5-4

74kg (25 entries)
GOLD: Alireza GHASEMI (IRI) df. Sosuke TAKATANI (JPN), 4-0
Bronze: George HARTH (GER) df. Miroslav KIROV (BUL), 5-2
Bronze: Morteza REZAEI GHALEH (IRI) df. Martin OBST (GER), 8-2

86kg (25 entries)
GOLD: Selim YASAR (TUR) df. Radoslaw MARCINKIEWICZ (POL), 8-2
Bronze: Amarhadshi MAGOMEDOV (BLR) df. Rene MATEJOV (SVK) by TF, 10-0
Bronze: Ahmet BILICI (TUR) df. Sebastian JEZIERZANSKI (POL), 8-4

97kg (22 entries)
GOLD: Tahan ABBAS (IRI) df. Elizbar OIDIKADZE (GEO), 3-1
Bronze: Radoslaw BARAN (POL) df. Alexey KRUPNIAKOV (KGZ) by Default
Bronze: Mohammadhossein MOHAMMADIAN (IRI) df. Ibrahim BOLUKBASI (TUR) by Default

125kg (13 entries)
GOLD: Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) df. Aleksei NIKOLAEV (BLR), 6-0
Bronze: Nick MATUHIN (GER) df. Khaled Omar MOHAMED (EGY) by Default
Bronze: DENG Zhiwei (CHN) df. Muradin KUSHKHOV (RUS) by Default