#WrestleTokyo

Al-Obaidi Named to IOC Refugee Team, Will Wrestle at Tokyo 2020

Wednesday, June 9, 2021 - 14:21 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (June 9) -- Aker AL-OBAIDI, an Iraqi-refugee currently living, working, and wrestling in Austria has been named to the IOC Refugee Team for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The 67kg Greco-Roman athlete will be the first wrestler to compete for the Refugee Team at the Olympic Games.

"This is one of the most beautiful moments in my life, said Al-Obaidi. "I am so happy that this dream has come true. I have imagined this situation so many times. Now I will do everything to be well prepared in Tokyo!“

Al-Obaidi, who holds an Austrian residence permit and has received the full support of the Austrian Wrestling Federation, was able to travel around Europe and attend several major wrestling competitions the past few years, including the 2019 Junior European Championships where he took bronze.

"We are very proud of Aker," said United World Wrestling president Nenad LALOVIC. "He has worked hard to achieve his goals on and off the mat. We are in full support of his career and share in his excitement for competing in Tokyo this summer."

"The Austrian Wrestling Federation was key to helping Aker to train," said to Deqa NIAMKEY. "His training partners, and especially his coach Benedikt Ernst were essential in assisting Aker with training, travel, and acclimating to his new life in Austria."

Al-Obaidi stayed busy on the mats over the last three years, competing in several tournaments including two Olympic qualification events held in 2021.

2021 U23 Senior European Championships
2021 World OG Qualifier
2021 Senior European Championships
2021 Grand Prix Henry Deglane
2021 European OG Qualifier
2020 European OG Qualifier
2020 Senior European Championships
2019 Junior World Championships
2019 Junior European Championships

The Refugee Olympic Team (EOR) includes 25 Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders from 11 countries who have been living and training in 13 host countries and represents 12 sports. For all official representations of the team (i.e. medal ceremonies) the Olympic flag will be raised, and the Olympic anthem will be played.

Al-Obaidi will take the mats for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games on Tuesday, August 3rd inside the Makuharri Messe in Tokyo. 

#WrestleHammamet

African Championships: Battle for continental supremacy heats up

Wednesday, May 17, 2023 - 12:14 By Vinay Siwach

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HAMMAMET, Tunisia (May 15) -- With fresh memories from last year's African Championships, Tunisia will hope to win the women's wrestling team title, this year at home.

The African Championships got underway in Hammamet on Monday but the senior competition will be held on Friday and Saturday with Greco-Roman and women's wrestling on the first day and freestyle on the second.

Tunisia will have a chance to claim a team title in front of the home if it can repeat the performance from El Jadida. They won the title with 179 points over Nigeria which finished with 170 points.

Rio Olympics bronze medalist Marwa AMRI (TUN) will lead the charge with youngsters Zaineb SGHAIER (TUN) at 72kg and Khadija JLASSI (TUN) at 65kg. Siwar BOUSETA (TUN) at 59kg will also be a big medal hope. The absence of defending champ at 50kg Sarra HAMDI (TUN) may hurt the hosts but they will back the younger wrestlers in the squad.

Nigeria will be led by Blessing OBORUDUDU (NGR) who is going for a record 13th African title. She won unstoppable last year but has not competed since the 2022 World Championships in which she failed to win a medal.

Defending champion at 55kg Jumoke ADEKOYE (NGR) is back in the competition but 59kg champ and three-time world medalist Odunayo ADEKUOROYE (NGR) is missing from the list as she continues to sit off the competition since winning the Islamic Solidarity Games in August 2022.

Jumping up to 57kg Mercy ADEKUOROYE (NGR) would be hoping for back-to-back gold medals as she won the 53kg weight class last year. Esther KOLAWOLE (NGR) at 62kg, Ebipatei MUGHENBOFA (NGR) at 65kg and Hannah RUEBEN (NGR) at 72kg will try to be among the medals to push Nigeria to the top.

At 76kg, world silver medalist Samar HAMZA (EGY) will be eyeing another African title and she is the favorite in the weight class which has seen only four entries. Arianna XAVIER (CPV), Anta SAMBOU (SEN) and Ranim SAIDI (TUN) will be the challengers for Hamza.

Egypt pipped Algeria for both freestyle and Greco-Roman team titles despite the latter's spirited performances to win four golds in freestyle and five in Greco-Roman. In women's wrestling, Tunisia scored past Nigeria to win the team title.

But with the entry list finalized for the senior competition for the African Championships, it is clear that the contest will once again be between Egypt and Algeria.

Mohamed ELSAYED (EGY)Mohamed ELSAYED (EGY) is a bronze medalist from Tokyo Olympics. (Photo: UWW / Kadir Caliskan)

Egypt, Algeria favorites

In Greco-Roman, Egypt can take confidence from the fact that Olympic bronze medalist Mohamed ELSAYED (EGY) is back in the line-up as he prepares for the 2024 Paris Olympics. He will be competing at 67kg with the hope of leading his country to the team title.

Others on the team include 130kg defending champion Abdellatif MOHAMED (EGY), Haithem MAHMOUD (EGY) at 60kg, Yehia ABDELKADER (EGY) at 72kg and Mohamed KHALIL (EGY) at 77kg among others.

These wrestlers will be challenged by Mohamed DRIDI (ALG) at 55kg, 60kg champion Abdeldjebar DJEBBARI (ALG) who has moved to 63kg, silver medalist from 2022 Ishak GHAIOU (ALG) at 67kg and three other defending champs -- Abd OUAKALI (ALG) at 82kg, Bachir SID AZARA (ALG) at 87kg and Adem BOUDJEMLINE (ALG) at 97kg.

Freestyle followed a similar script in El Jadida as Algeria scripted a late comeback to give Egypt a score for the title but fell short.

But with gold medalists returning it will be interesting to see if Egypt can keep it at bay as it did with two points last year.