#BeachWrestling

Azerbaijan, Romania crown 4 beach wrestling world champs

Friday, September 2, 2022 - 09:52 By Vinay Siwach

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CONSTANTA, Romania (September 1) -- When Huseyn SEVDIMOV (AZE) was introduced to beach wrestling, he was unsure if he wants to pursue a career in the sport.

But that was a year ago. Just five months since his first practice, Sevdimov won the European Championships in July. He added a World Championships gold medal on Thursday to his resume and continued his exponential rise in beach wrestling.

"I am extremely happy about winning the gold medal at the World Championships," Sevdimov said. "I have been training for one year in the sand just for this competition."

It worked well for him as he won the five bouts with superiority [winning 3-0] or fall [a 3-0 win in], including one over Gaspard CHEYNOUX (FRA) in the gold medal bouts. 

"I did not want to give any chance to my opponents to score on me," he said. "Now that I have won, I hope the other guys can win the gold medal as well."

After Sevdimov, three other Azerbaijan wrestlers won gold medals to sweep all the titles at the U17 World Championships at the Mamaia beach in Constanta, Romania.

At 60kg, Ziya GOYUSHOV (AZE) won the gold medal after beating Ionut TRIBOI (MDA), 3-0, in the final. He was as dominant as Sevdimov if not more than his compatriot.

Over the six bouts, Goyushov outscored his opponents 17-0 including a victory by fall.

It appeared Ilias KARNAVAS (GRE) will break the Azerbaijan streak as he the lead in the 70kg final against Vusal ALIYEV (AZE). But as the bout progressed, Aliyev composed him and scored a 3-1 win to win the gold.

At 80kg, Anar JAFARLI (AZE) won the gold medal after a tough final against Ion MARCU (MDA). Jafarli conceded a point and found it difficult to score but Marcu began losing steam which allowed Jafarli to get on the scoreboard. His continued pressure helped him win 3-1.

Earlier in the day, he had a thrilling Round 2 bout against Lars MICHAELSON (USA), winning 3-2. Michaelson took a 2-1 lead with a minute remaining but Jafarli used snap downs to win the bout.

Part of Azerbaijan's domination at the age-group level can be credited to its coach Oyan NAZARIANI (AZE), a former world champion in beach wrestling.

Nazariani runs the national training center in Baku and has built an indoor center as well to train wrestlers in the winter.

"I am happy to see our wrestlers win," Nazariani said. "We  trained in beach wrestling and to be world number one means it's the feedback of our good training."

Nazariani has been the leader of the sport in Azerbaijan, winning the gold at the 2018 and 2019 World Series and a bronze medal at the World Beach Games in Qatar in 2019. A hand injury has kept him out this season but he continued to train the young wrestlers.

"We train on the Caspian sea beach in summers and the indoor ring in winters," he said. "I tell them to focus on not touching knees and elbows and we hosted the national championships for the first time as well.

"If you ask them, they will say they are beach wrestlers and not just wrestlers."

Romania

Perfect Romania

In the women's category, Romania won all four gold medals, claiming the team title as well. Such was its domination that Romania had seven finalists out of the eight.

At 40kg, Diana VOICULESCU (ROU) defeated Bianca IANCAU (ROU) even after giving up the first point. She used a three-point move to finish the final via fall.

Alexandra VOICULESCU (ROU) was the second gold medal as she defeated Ana ROTARU (ROU) in the 50kg final. In the full three-minute bout, Voiculescu won 2-0.

In the only final which did not have both Romanian wrestlers, Alessandra ELLIOTT (USA) tried stopping Florentina MANTOG (ROU) from winning the gold but the latter proved too strong and won the 60kg gold medal 3-1.

The final gold medal was won by Maria PANTIRU (ROU) as she defeated Ionela COJOCARU (ROU), 3-1, winning the 70kg gold medal 3-1.

#JapanWrestling

Paris Olympic Champ Sakurai Retires at Age 24

Sunday, April 5, 2026 - 09:12 By Ken Marantz

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TOKYO (April 4) -- Having never really regained the motivation that led her to achieve her ultimate goal of an Olympic gold, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) has decided to retire at the tender age of 24.

Sakurai, the women’s 57kg champion at the Paris Olympics, has announced that she will hang up her singlet and begin a second career nurturing a new generation of wrestlers and serving as a goodwill ambassador of sports for her native Kochi Prefecture in western Japan.

“After 21 continuous years, I feel I have reached the cutoff point of my wrestling career, so I have decided to retire,” Sakurai said at a press conference Friday at the Kochi Prefecture government office.

“I gave everything I had for the Olympics, and I was able to experience the feeling of achievement and the ultimate joy. It's difficult to win the Olympics without determination. I couldn't get back to the mindset I had before Paris. That is the biggest reason [for retiring].”

Known for her steely aggressiveness belying a quiet demeanor, and a wicked use of a 2-on-1 arm bar, Sakurai prefaced her triumph in Paris by winning three consecutive world titles, at 55kg in 2021 and back-to-back golds at 57kg in 2022 and 2023.

A U17 world champion in 2016, she won golds at the Asian Championships and Asian Games in 2022 and 2023, respectively, but suffered the second of just two career international losses at the 2024 Asian Championships, where she fell to Yongxian FENG (CHN) in the final.

She bounced back five months later for her crowning achievement in Paris, where she defeated 2016 Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 10-4 in the semifinals, then took the gold with a 6-0 victory over Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) in a rematch of the 2023 world final.

Making the win in Paris even more special was the fact that not only did Sakurai strike gold, but so did another Japanese wrestler who started the sport together with her at the kids wrestling club in Kochi run by her father.

Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), the freestyle 65kg champion in his Olympic debut, and Sakurai became the toast of Kochi, a rural prefecture fronting the Pacific on the island of Shikoku. They were paraded through the streets of the prefectural capital of Kochi City and hailed as heroes.

Like almost all of Japan’s medalists in Paris, the two took time off from the sport to run the gauntlet of TV interviews and variety shows, and just chill out in general. Sakurai, who returned to Kochi and started graduate studies in sport sciences at Kochi University, was particularly slow in returning to the mat.

In what would prove to be her first – and last – competition after Paris, she won the 57kg title at the second-tier Japan Women’s Open in October 2025, ostensibly to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships the following December. That would be the starting point for domestic qualifying for major global tournaments.

But Sakurai never made it to the Emperor’s Cup, and has now fully turned the corner on a new career.

“Over the past year, this decision was made after talking to many people, fretting about it, and thinking things through,” she said.

Sakurai said that as an extension of her father’s Kochi Wrestling Club, she wants to run a series of clinics outside of the city, mainly in her hometown of Konan just to the east of Kochi, to expose more children to wrestling and help it grow.

“Aside from wrestling, I'm learning so many things in graduate school right now, so I want to acquire a wide range of knowledge so that I can give back to Kochi Prefecture properly,” Sakurai said. “I think there will be various problems when I put things into practice, so I want to acquire solid knowledge so that I can solve those problems.”

Fans at this week’s Asian Championships in Bishkek will see another product of the Kochi Wrestling Club in action in Moe KIYOOKA (JPN), Kotaro’s younger sister and a former world champion who will be looking to add the 53kg gold to the one she won at 55kg in 2024. She and Sakurai were also teammates at Ikuei University.

And the name Sakurai might soon be appearing on the world stage again. Her younger sister, Tsukino SAKURAI (JPN), won the Asian U15 title last year.