#development

UWW holds second educator course in Istanbul

By United World Wrestling Press

ISTANBUL, Turkey (March 25) – United World Wrestling hosted their second course for Educators in Istanbul, Turkey, March 16-20. The course focused on improving and developing the participants skills as an educator.  The Educators that attended participated in interactive activities to learn the principles of adult education, strategies for formative assessments, how to give feedback, and modern educator characteristics.  Each participant was required to deliver a Micro-Leadership session on one of the course topics to further practice and develop their skills. “The Educator Course was a success. The participants were highly engaged and are now committed to advancing the development of wrestling agenda. We will definitely see great progress in next Olympic cycle” – Deqa Niamkey (UWW Development Director)

Of the participants that attended, 12 of them were new educators to UWW.  They were required to attend 2 additional days to learn the foundation of educator skills.  After their initial training, they were joined by the remaining educators to participate in the rest of the course. 

The course was conducted by Mr. Vincent Aka (CIV/FRA) and Mr. Zach Errett (USA).  Mr. Aka is a the development officer and educator trainer for UWW.  Mr. Errett is the Education Manager for UWW.  They led a group of participants from every continent. “Today, after completing the training of our educators, we have taken a very important step towards the vision of professionalizing our national structures. From now on, our educators represent for us a bridge thrown from United World Wrestling to support the development of our national federations. Our educators, inhabited by the new approach of United World Wrestling, are the seeds that we launch in the fertile ground of the federations to energize the much-desired development of our basic structures. I am very proud to participate in this new stage. And we must continue this work for future generations of the wrestling family.” said Vincent Aka.  “It was a fantastic course!  The participants were openminded and worked very hard to apply the skills that they learned during the course.  This made for an enjoyable and productive course.  There is no doubt that these educators will help grow and develop wrestling around the world,”  said Zach Errett.

The organization of the course was assisted by the Turkish Wrestling Federation and the Associated Wrestling Styles – Istanbul Office.  “The course would not have been possible without the hard work by these groups! A special thanks to Mr. Seref Erouglu, President of Turkish Wrestling Federation and Mrs. Rodica Yaksi, Mr. Onur Simsek, and Farnaz Panahizadeh for all of their efforts to organize and provided a fantastic hotel and environment for the course,” said Deqa Niamkey.

TURAttendees participated in interactive activities to learn the principles of adult education, strategies for formative assessments and how to give feedback, among many other skills. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

Comments from some of the participants.

“I can see the change from Old Coach's mentality as a Power dictator to coach's try to learn new things every day to be a better coach more flexible and open mind.  I feel UWW is moving in the right direction to grow wrestling around the world, and We saw the United of Wrestling World form all educators around the world.  All educators from Different cultures, traditions, Languages, even music, and dance are different, but Everyone comes together Unites on the love of wrestling.” – Mohammed Abdelfattah (EGY/USA)

“This course has empowered us to spread wrestling coaching and refereeing skills using practical, contemporary and fun techniques to deliver our message to grow the sport.”  - Stefan Rudevics (AUS)

"I am going home from this educator's course filled with positive emotions and very happy that I was able to learn a lot of new things and new ways on how to improve as an educator.  This course has given us, UWW educators, an amazing opportunity and new skills which will help us deliver our future courses to NF's on a much higher level, and that by doing so we will be able to contribute to UWW Development department and its mission of helping our sport of wrestling evolve worldwide!" – Davor Petanjek (CRO)

“Thank you to the UWW Development Team and the Turkish Wrestling Federation for the opportunity to work and learn with coaches and referees from around the world!  The Educators Course was an invaluable experience!  I gained knew knowledge and ideas for educating athletes and coaches for success in competitive environments.  The Educators Course also helped reinforce a global network of coaches and referees that can share ideas across borders.” – Clarissa Chun (USA)

It was a very good course and I learned new experiences. I held training classes in my country for many years, but I always felt that my training courses were boring. Now I have learned that with good planning, active and happy training classes can be held. During this period, I met trainers and educators from other countries, and we had a good and intimate relationship with each other. All in all the course was great and caused changes in my behavior, thoughts and performance in my work life as well as my daily life in the future. I hope to be able to help develop my favorite sport, wrestling.  – Mohammad Mosalaeipour (IRI)

#WrestleBudapest

Ranking Series: Tazhudinov wins gold; Sujeet, Suda champions in Budapest

By Vinay Siwach

BUDAPEST, Hungary (July 17) -- The final Ranking Series of the season begins Thursday in Budapest with seven Freestyle weight classes -- 57kg, 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 79kg, 97kg and 125kg.

WATCH LIVE | LIVE MATCH ORDER | FREESTYLE PREVIEW

19:55: Bahrain gets a second gold medal as Shamil SHARIPOV (BRN) hangs on for a 5-3 win over Dzianis KHRAMIANKOU (UWW) in the 125kg final.

19:35: Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN) makes it another 11-0 victory and wins gold medal at 97kg. That is his fourth technical superiority win today. Since his Paris gold, Tazhudinov wrestled in Spain and won gold and now adds a second in two weeks.

19:10: Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO) is so good in his defense and he uses it to great effect and beats Magomet EVLOEV (TJK) 5-0 and takes the gold medal at 79kg at the Budapest Ranking Series.

18:35: Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) wins Ranking Series gold medal at 70kg after beating Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM) 8-0 in the final. Just a really strong performance overall as he gets ready for World Championships.

18:10: SUJEET (IND) gives India a Ranking Series gold medal in Freestyle after beating Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE). A bit of Bajrang PUNIA (IND) in Sujeet as he only gives up a activity point in the first period and upped the pace in the second scoring two takedowns and point for activity to win the gold medal.

17:45: Takara SUDA (JPN) with a buzzer-beating four-pointer in the 61kg final to win gold medal! Suda was down 3-1 against Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) with 10 seconds remaining. Suda snaps Zhumashbek Uulu and then brings him down on the mat. Zhamashbek Uulu tries to defend but in clearly on his back and Suda has control. Suda is awarded a 3-3 criteria win.

Kyrgyzstan challenges but that is awarded four points to Suda and he wins 5-3

17:20: Luke LILLEDAHL (USA) is the champion at 57kg after he pulls off a takedown in the last 25 seconds against Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE). Both wrestlers exchanged activity points and Lilledahl led 1-1 on criteria but he scored a takedown to pull off a clear 3-1 victory.

17:00: The medal bouts in all weight classes begin now. The bronze medals will be held on Mat B and C while the gold-medal bout will be on Mat B.

Budapest Ranking Series 2025 Day 1 Semifinal Report

Olympic champions Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN), who wrestled at the Grand Prix of Spain last week in his first tournament since Paris Olympics, reached the 97kg final at the Budapest Ranking Series on Thursday.

Wrestling only in his third-ever Ranking Series, Tazhudinov posted three straight technical superiority wins and entered the final against Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL).

Opening his day with a 14-2 win, Tazhudinov manhandled Adlan VISKHANOV (FRA) and capitalized on the half-hearted attacks of the French wrestler. He hit a big double-leg attack for four points but Viskhanov got two points for exposure.

But that was only opening Tazhudinov allowed for the rest of the bout. Viskhanov tried a few leg attacks but Tazhudinov scored a takedown and two turns to be up 10-2 before an arm-bar attempt turned into takedown for his win.

Aliaksandr HUSHTYN (UWW) was next and Tazhudinov needed just a minute to beat him. In the semifinals, he took 1 minute and 48 seconds to see off Merab SULEIMANISHVILI (GEO), 10-0.

Baranowski had a contradictory run to the final as he won 6-6 on criteria against Jonathan AIELLO (USA) before a 7-5 victory over VICKY (IND) in the quarterfinals. He improved the score line to 7-3 in the semifinal against Juhwan SEO (KOR).

In other weight classes, world U20 champion Luke LILLEDAHL (USA) needed two last-second wins in quarterfinals and semifinals to book a place in the final. He defeated Niklas STECHELE (GER) 4-2 with a pushout in the last second and then handed RAHUL (IND) a 7-6 loss with a takedown in the final moments.

He will take on Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE) for the gold medal after the Azerbaijan wrestler beat Roberti DINGASHVILI (GEO), 5-2.

Asian champion at 61kg Takara SUDA (JPN) showed why he one of the medal threats at the World Championships in Zagreb. Suda wrestled two bouts before reaching the final and won them without much trouble. He began with a 12-2 win over Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) and then posted a 4-3 win over Assylzhan YESSENGELDI (KAZ).

He will face Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) in the final after the Kyrgyzstan beat his compatriot Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ), 3-2. A win against Suda in the final can be a huge confidence booster for the Kyrgyz wrestler.

At 65kg, SUJEET (IND) was a surprise finalist after he got the better of Paris Olympic medalist Islam DUDAEV (ALB), 11-0, and then beat Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM), 6-1, in the semifinals.

He will take on Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE) in the final who defeated Alibeg ALIBEGOV (BRN), 9-2, in the other semifinal.

At 70kg, Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) and Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM) set up the final which will be a clash between two continental silver medalists. Aoyagi was in red-hot form in Budapest and outscored his opponents 28-3 before the final.

Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), after his small quest at 86kg, returned to 79kg and made it to the final in Budapest after a 2-0 win over Bolat SAKAYEV (KAZ) in the semifinal. He will face Asian silver medalist Magomet EVLOEV (TJK) in the final. The Tajik stunned Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE) in the semifinal using a cradle in just 21 seconds.

Kougioumtsidis dominated his matches till the semifinals but could not stop Evloev from finishing the cradle and had to make his way to the bronze-medal bout instead of gold.