WrestleOlegKaravaev

Oleg Karavaev Entries

By Eric Olanowski

MINSK, Belarus (July 19) --- The regular season closes out next week with the final Greco-Roman Ranking Series event, the Oleg Karavaev. The two-day tournament, which will be held in Minsk, Belarus, will feature nearly 175 wrestlers from 19 different nations.

Emrah KUS (TUR), the reigning world runner-up and No. 1-ranked wrestler in the world at 82kg, leads a field littered with 24 wrestlers who are ranked inside the top-20 of the latest Greco-Roman rankings. Kus' weight of 82kg will feature six ranked wrestlers -- which is the most top-20 guys in one bracket.

Two other stacked weight classes to pay attention to are 67kg and 130kg. Both weights house at least four top-20 competitors.

Wrestling at the Palace of Sports begins on July 26 and can be followed live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org.

ENTRIES

55kg
Manjeet MANJEET (IND)
Vijay VIJAY (IND)
Maksym VYSOTSKYI (ISR)
Vladimir ZABEYVOROTA RUS)

Emin Narimanovitch SEFERSHAEV (RUS)

60kg
Ihar DROZD (BLR)
Dzmitry BRYCHAK (BLR)
Marat GARIPOV  (BRA)
Gautam YADAV (IND)
Vijay VIJAY (IND)
Manish MANISH (IND)
Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN)
Khorlan ZHAKANSHA  (KAZ)
Amangali BEKBOLATOV (KAZ)
Zhanserik SARSENBIYEV (KAZ)
Seunghak KIM (KOR)
Artur PETROSIAN (RUS)
Sadyk LALAEV(RUS)

Ahmet UYAR   (TUR)
Andriy MARTYNYUK (UKR)
Ihor KUROCHKIN (UKR)
Javokhir MIRAKHMEDOV (UZB)
Ilkhom BAKHROMOV (UZB)

63kg
Yahor BELIAK  (BLR)
Aliaksandr PECHURENKA (BLR)
Erbatu TUO (CHN)
Sailike WALIHAN (CHN)
Juuso Aleksi LATVALA (FIN)
Sagar SAGAR (IND)
Shinobu OTA (JPN)
Aidos SULTANGALI (KAZ)
Mirambek AINAGULOV (KAZ)
Damir ZARLYKHANOV (KAZ)
Justas PETRAVICIUS (LTU)
Roman Aleksandrovich IVANOV (RUS)
Shamil Salauddinovitch MUALIEV (RUS)
Fadis VALITOV (RUS)
Nasrullakh NASIBOV (UKR)
Elmurat TASMURADOV (UZB)
Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
Firuz TUKHTAEV (UZB)

Second-ranked Hansu RYU (KOR) will lock up the No. 2 seed at the World Championships with a win in Minsk. (Photo: Sachiko Hotaka)

67kg 
Soslan DAUROV (BLR)
Maksim NEHODA (BLR)
Mikita BARANAU (BLR)
Fredrik Holmquist BJERREHUUS (DEN)
Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed Ibrahi ELSAYED (EGY)
Abouhalima Mohamed Elsaid ABOUHALIMA (EGY)
Manish MANISH (IND)
Tsuchika SHIMOYAMADA (JPN)
Shogo TAKAHASHI (JPN)
Daniyar KALENOV (KAZ)
Ruslan ITEMGENOV (KAZ)
Hansu RYU (KOR)
Aleksandrs JURKJANS (LAT)
Edgaras VENCKAITIS (LTU)
Alen MIRZOIAN (RUS)
Miakhdi Abubakarovitch IAKHIAEV (RUS)
Enes BASAR (TUR)
Murat FIRAT (TUR)
Vasyl SYMONENKO (UKR)
Aram VARDANYAN (UZB)
Makhmud BAKHSHILLOEV (UZB)
Mirzobek RAKHMATOV (UZB)

72kg 
Ruslan AHAMALYIEU (BLR)
Anton KORABAU (BLR)
Uladzislau MANKEVICH (BLR)
Gaoquan ZHANG (CHN)
Hassan Hassan Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY)
Miras AKHMETZHANOV (KAZ)
Meiirzhan SHERMAKHANBET (KAZ)
Kristupas SLEIVA (LTU)
Magomed YARBILOV (RUS)
Narek OGANIAN (RUS)
Arslan ZUBAIROV (RUS)
Andrii KULYK (UKR)

77kg 
Pavel LIAKH (BLR)
Tsimur BERDYIEU (BLR)
Anton SAKHNO (BLR)
Ridong ZHANG (CHN)
Hujun ZHANG  (CHN)
Jakub BIELESZ (CZE)
Mohamed Ehab Mohamed Zahab KHALIL (EGY)
Sakke Petteri PUROLAINEN (FIN)
Niko Olavi Oskari ERKKOLA (FIN)
Yogesh YOGESH (IND)
Sajan SAJAN (IND)
Naotsugu SHOJI (JPN)
Shohei YABIKU (JPN)
Ibragim MAGOMADOV (KAZ)
Paulius GALKINAS (LTU)
Rafael IUNUSOV (RUS)
Islam OPIEV (RUS)
Akhmed KAYTSUKOV  (RUS)
Serkan AKKOYUN (TUR)
Ivan KRAICHEV (UKR)
Yasaf ZEINALOV (UKR)


Top-ranked Emrah KUS (TUR) leads an 82kg field that has six ranked wrestler that'll be in action. (Photo: Gabor Martin) 

82kg 
Viktar SASUNOUSKI (BLR)
Stanislau SHAFARENKA (BLR)
Mikita KLIMOVICH (BLR)
Haitao QIAN (CHN)
Bin YANG (CHN)
Oldrich VARGA (CZE)
Rajbek Alvievich BISULTANOV (DEN)
Singh GURPREET (IND)
Singh HARPREET (IND)
Igor PETRISHIN (ISR)
Maxat YEREZHEPOV (KAZ)
Askhat ZHANBIROV (KAZ)
Miras BARSHYLYKOV (KAZ)
Milad Valerikovitch ALIRZAEV (RUS)
Emrah KUS (TUR)
Ruslan KONIEV (UKR)
Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB)
Bilan NALGIEV (UZB)
Nurbek KHASHIMBEKOV (UZB)

87kg
Radzik KULIYEU (BLR)
Mikalai STADUB (BLR)
Kiryl MASKEVICH (BLR)
Junjie NA (CHN)
Mohamed Moustafa Ahmed Abdall METWALLY (EGY)
Kumar SUNIL (IND)
Takahiro TSURUDA (JPN)
Masato SUMI  (JPN)
Azamat KUSTUBAYEV (KAZ)
Baurzhan MUSSIN (KAZ)
Laimutis ADOMAITIS (LTU)
Martynas NEMSEVICIUS (LTU)
Julius MATUZEVICIUS (LTU)
Vaag MARGARIAN (RUS)
Gazi KHALILOV (RUS)
Dogan GOKTAS (TUR)
Muhammadali SHAMSIDDINOV (UZB)
Rustam ASSAKALOV (UZB)

97kg
Aliaksandr HRABOVIK (BLR)
Siarhei STARADUB (BLR)
Dzmitry KAMINSKI (BLR)
Yanan CHEN (CHN)
Yan LIU (CHN)
Artur OMAROV (CZE)
Ondrej DADAK (CZE)
Mathias BAK (DEN)
Ravi RAVI (IND)
Yuta NARA (JPN)
Olzhas SYRLYBAY (KAZ)
Yerulan ISKAKOV (KAZ)
Alimkhan SYZDYKOV (KAZ)
Vilius LAURINAITIS (LTU)
Ruslan BEKUZAROV (RUS)
Fatih BASKOY (TUR)
Suleyman DEMIRCI (TUR)
Ibrahim TIGCI (TUR)
Zielimkhan DZIHASOV (UKR)
Oleksandr SHYSHMAN (UKR)
Jahongir TURDIEV (UZB)

KIM Minseok (KOR), a Budapest world bronze medalist, only need one point to lock up at least a top-four seed at the World Championships. (Photo: Max Rose-Fyne)

130kg
Kiryl HRYSHCHANKA (BLR)
Georgi CHUGOSHVILI (BLR)
Javid HAMZATAU (BLR)
Yasmani ACOSTA FERNANDEZ (CHI)
Di XIAO (CHN)
Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
Stepan DAVID (CZE)
Abdellatif Mohamed Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY)
Konsta Johannes MAEENPAEAE (FIN)
Tuomas Heikki Juhani LAHTI (FIN)
Naveen NAVEEN (IND)
Damir KUZEMBAYEV (KAZ)
Mansur SHADUKAYEV (KAZ)
Minseok KIM (KOR)
Romas FRIDRIKAS (LTU)
Oleg Kahaberovitch AGAKHANOV (RUS)
Osman YILDIRIM (TUR)
Muminjon ABDULLAEV (UZB)

#UWWAwards

UWW History Makers of 2025: Kougioumtsidis, Reasco, Sultangali

By Eric Olanowski

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 22) -- United World Wrestling has announced the History Makers of the Year 2025. The performance of these three wrestlers transcended competition and produced a once-in-a-generation accomplishment.

Freestyle’s History Maker 2025: Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE)

If there’s one nation that’s draped in sports tradition, it’s Greece, but surprisingly enough, the nation had never produced a male wrestling world champion.

Prior to 2025, wrestlers from Greece were 0-3 in gold-medal matches and had not reached a world finals since 1991. Then came 23-year-old Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS who stunned the world by defeating Levi HAINES (USA) 3-2 in the 79kg final to become his nation’s first-ever world champion.

Up until Kougioumtsidis' victory, Georgios ATHANASSIADIS (GRE) lost both of his world finals matches and Iraklis DESKOULIDIS (GRE) lost the final in 1991. The lone Greek woman to ever step to the top of the medal podium at the World Championships was Sofia POUMPOURIDOU (GRE), who won the women's 51kg gold on home soil in 2002.

"I'm very lucky that I am Greek," Kougioumtsidis said. "So I feel like I made all Greeks proud. I am Greek and I love my country." He continued, saying, “I'm the first male [from Greece] who won a gold medal at the World Championships. It's my dream come true. I think this year is a good achievement. I achieved my goal."

Women’s Wrestling History Maker: Genesis REASCO (ECU)

Reasco made history by becoming Ecuador's first-ever world champion, which came two years following Lucia YEPEZ (ECU) silver-medal finish at the 2023 World Championships where she still become the Ecuador's first-ever world medalist.

Reasco reached the pinnacle of the sport with a 4-2 victory in the 76kg final over two-time world medalist Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ), which came one match removed from knocking off Paris bronze medalist Milaimy MARIN (CUB) in the semifinals.

"I went in, gave my all, and it worked," Reasco said. "That’s how the gold medal was achieved, because honestly, I have a lot of respect for all my opponents. They gave everything out there on the mat, and they were really good matches -- both yesterday’s and today’s. Everything was very tough, very close."

Greco-Roman’s History Maker: Aidos SULTANGALI (KAZ)

Sultangali ended a 26-year Greco-Roman drought, giving Kazakhstan their first Greco world champion since 1999 with a very quick victory over Uzbek youngster Alisher GANIEV (UZB) in the 60kg finals at the World Championships.

Sultangali, who won two world bronze medals between 2018 and 2022, only needed 1:07 to cap off masterful first-period 9-0 win over Asian runner-up GANIEV (UZB).

"I didn’t plan to win the final match so easily and quickly," Sultangali said. "But it happened. Today is a historic day for our country because the last gold medal for Kazakhstan came in 1999, 26 years ago," said Sultangali, "I am happy that my country is happy."