#WrestleDortmund

Bayramov Bulldozes Way to Second Junior Euro Title

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 - 22:53 By Eric Olanowski

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DORTMUND, Germany (June 29) --- Turan BAYRAMOV (AZE) bulldozed his way to a second junior European title, while Polat POLATCI (TUR) ascended to the top of the junior European podium by pinning Ali ALIEV (RUS) after trailing by nine points in the 97kg finals.

Bayramov, the ’19 U23 world champion, blanked all of his opponents en route to the 70kg title. Heading into Tuesday’s finals, he outscored his three opponents 26-0, and after shutting out Stanislav NOVAC (MDA) 7-0 in the finals, stretched that clean sheet to 35-0.

Bayramov’s win in Dortmund on Tuesday marked the third time the Azeri claimed European gold. He also won a cadet title in ’18 and a junior title in ’19.

Turkey’s Polatci closed out the day with an unbelievable comeback performance. He trailed 13-4 against Ali Aliev in the second period of the 97kg finals when he stopped a lazy Russian gut wrench attempt and scored the fall.

Meanwhile, Russia reeled in three gold medals and a silver medal and lead Turkey by 26 points heading into the final day of freestyle wrestling at the Junior European Championships.

Ukraine (53 points), Georgia (52 points) and Azerbaijan (47 points) round of the top five in the team score after Tuesday’s action.

Thanks to gold-medal performances by Said KHUNKEROV (RUS), Turpal Ali KHATUEV (RUS) and Rasul ASLUEV (RUS), and Aliev winning silver, Russia has a comfortable lead heading into Wednesday’s final day of freestyle action.

At 57kg, Khunkerov muscled his way to an 8-2 win over Khndzrtsyan in the finals. The Russian capitalized on two takedowns in each period and won gold, 8-2.

Khatuev walked his way to the 65kg gold medal. After the first period, he led 6-0 from a pair of takedowns and a leg lace. A right-sided sweep single leg put the Russian up 8-0 late in the second period. He conceded a late step out, but ultimately picked up a second gold of the night for Russia with the 8-1 victory.

Although it was lackluster, Asluev won Russia’s third gold of the day with a 3-1 win over Greece’s Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE). He scored an inactivity point, step out and failed challenge as time expired and bagged 79kg gold.

Wrestling at the Junior European Championships resumes on Wednesday at 11:30 (local time) and can be followed on www.uww.org.

RESULTS

57kg
GOLD - Said KHUNKEROV (RUS) vs. Manvel KHNDZRTSYAN (ARM), 8-2
BRONZE - Giorgi GEGELASHVILI (GEO) vs. Ahmet KARAVUS (TUR), 11-0
BRONZE - Thomas EPP (SUI) df. Ioannis MARTIDIS (GRE), 1-1

65kg
GOLD - Turpal Ali KHATUEV (RUS) df. Mykyta HONCHAROV (UKR), 8-1
BRONZE - Giorgi TCHOLADZE (GEO) df. Sabir JAFAROV (AZE), 7-4
BRONZE - Ayub Muratovitch MUSAEV (BEL) df. Marcell BUDAI KOVACS (HUN), 12-8

70kg
GOLD - Turan BAYRAMOV (AZE) vs. Stanislav NOVAC (MDA), 7-0
BRONZE - Narek HARUTYUNYAN (ARM) df. Davit PATSINASHVILI (GEO), 7-6
BRONZE - Mevlut OZDEMIR (TUR) df. Viktor VOINOVIC (SRB), 8-4

79kg
GOLD - Rasul ASLUEV (RUS) df. Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE), 3-1
BRONZE - smail KUCUKSOLAK (TUR) df. Otari ADEISHVILI (GEO), 10-7
BRONZE - Richard SCHROEDER (GER) vdf Viktor KRUPA (UKR), 2-1

97kg
GOLD - Polat POLATCI (TUR) df. Ali ALIEV (RUS), via fall
BRONZE - Danylo STASIUK (UKR) df. Yusuf SENYIGIT (GER), 10-0
BRONZE - Milan Andras KORCSOG (HUN) df. Alexandru BESLIU (ROU), 11-0

#WrestleZagreb

Zagreb Open 2026 Day 1: Gamkrelidze beats Valencia; Sujeet, Lee in finals

Wednesday, February 4, 2026 - 09:34 By Vinay Siwach

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ZAGREB, Croatia (February 4) -- The Zagreb Open 2026 begins with six weight classes in Freestyle -- 57kg, 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 74kg and 86kg. Stars like Zahid ZALENCIA (USA),  Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN), AMAN (IND) are in action.

Please read the 2026 SEASON PREVIEW on uww.org

WATCH LIVE | LIVE MATCH ORDER | PREVIEW

Here's a recap of the morning session: 61kg medalists are already decided with Austin DESANTO (USA) winning gold and AMAN (IND) finishing with silver. 

Spencer LEE (USA) and Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) will face each other in the 57kg gold medal bout. SUJEET (IND) won two bouts via technical superiority and will now wrestle for gold at 65kg. At 74kg, a big final is set as David CARR (USA) and Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) will clash. And at 86kg, world champion Zahid VALENCIA (USA) and 79kg world champion Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE), who is now up at 86kg dropped their opening bouts. However, with Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO) making it to the final, Valencia is pulled back while Kougioumtsidis has been knocked out.

13:38: Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), who defeated Zahid VALENCIA (USA) in the opening bout at 86kg, scores a late stepout to take a 2-2 criteria lead and beat Abolfazl SHAMSIPOUR (IRI) at 86kg semifinals. Gamkrelidze will wrestle Parker KEKEISEN (USA) for gold after he scored a 9-5 victory over Ali SAVADKOUHI (IRI) in the other semifinal.

13:20: 74kg semifinals - David CARR (USA) with another technical superiority win at 74kg. He advances to the final after beating Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO) 12-1. Four different takedowns and two gut-wrenches in that win for the American. A huge final coming up as world champion at 70kg Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) hangs on for a 4-3 win over Seyfulla ITAEV (FRA). The French wrestlers was up 2-1 but Aoyagi scored a stepout and takedown before giving up a stepout but managed to win the bout.

13:05: 70kg semifinals - Sina KHALILI (IRI), U23 world silver medalist, rolls to a 10-0 victory over ABHIMANYOU (IND) using gut-wrenches. He makes it to the final and will wrestle Akaki KEMERTELIDZE (GEO) for the gold medal. The Georgian defended his lead against Caleb HENSON (USA) to win 6-3. After leading 6-0, Kemertelidze gave up a takedown and then a stepout to Henson. But the American could not score the four points needed to win the semifinals.

12:55: 65kg semifinals - SUJEET (IND) continues his dominance at 65kg, beating Joseph MCKENNA (USA), 11-0 in the semifinal in semifinal. He will now wrestle for gold against Peyman NEMATI (IRI) who scored a comeback win over Gamzatgadzhi KHALIDOV (HUN). The Hungarian had a 2-0 lead before Nemati managed to turn it around and complete a 4-2 win

12:40: 57kg semifinals - Spencer LEE (USA) completes a dominant 10-2 victory over Fuga SASAKI (JPN). He managed an early 6-2 and then continued to dominate the match, eventually winning 12-2. He will face Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) for the gold medal after the Mexican defeated Milad VALIZADEH (IRI). Bravo Young kept his false attacks and change of direction was excellent throughout the bout

Semifinals begin at 12:30 local time

So far, world champion Zahid VALENCIA (USA) has suffered a technical superiority loss at 86kg while Takara SUDA (JPN), moving up from 61kg to 65kg, dropped his match against Joseph MCKENNA (USA). At 61kg, Austin DESANTO (USA) has captured the gold medal after winning three bouts in a Nordic bracket

12:15: In what was a virtual final at 61kg, Austin DESANTO (USA) not only needed a victory over AMAN (IND), he also need to win via technical superiority or fall. He does exactly that by pinning Aman after taking an 8-0 lead and win the gold medal at 61kg. Aman finishes with a silver medal.

12:12: U23 world champion SUJEET (IND) finishes his quarterfinal at 65kg with a 10-0 victory over Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA) and sets up a quarterfinal against Joseph MCKENNA (USA) who defeated Takara SUDA (JPN) 7-0 in the other quarterfinal.

12:08: Sina KHALILI (IRI) took a 9-1 lead over Ian PARKER (USA) but was gave a stepout with a minute remaining. However, he had little trouble holding on to his 9-3 lead and win his bout at 70kg.

12:00: Olympic silver medalist Spencer LEE (USA) hangs on for an easy 4-0 victory over European silver medalist Azamat TUSKAEV (SRB) at 57kg. He moves into the semifinals in which he will wrestle Fuga SASAKI (JPN)

11:55: Fuga SASAKI (JPN) hangs on for a 7-1 victory over ANKUSH (IND) in 57kg quarterfinals. Sasaki goes for three takedown and one stepout in his win over Ankush who failed to get any attacks going.

11:50: Akaki KEMERTELIDZE (GEO) shuts down Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV (HUN) at 70kg for a 3-0 win. Not much action in the match but Kemertelidze is happy with the win here.

11:45: Roman BRAVO-YOUNG (MEX) continues his excellent form and wins his quarterfinal against Anthony KNOX (USA), 12-2. He will wrestle in the semifinal at 57kg.

11:35: World champion Zahid VALENCIA (USA), who did not concede a single point at the World Championships, drops his quarterfinal against Vladimir GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), 11-0. Gut-wrench from par terre for Gamkrelidze

11:25: Former U20 world bronze medalist ANKUSH (IND) uses the Figure 4 turn to great effect to beat Ali YAHYAPOUR (IRI), 11-0, at 57kg. Ankush has long been seen as the biggest challenge to Olympic bronze medalist AMAN (IND) at the weight class

11:15: Zahid VALENCIA (USA) off to solid starts at 86kg as he takes out Sandeep MANN (IND) 11-0 in the opening bout at 86kg. Valencia is the world champion at 86kg, a title he won at the same Arena Zagreb in September last year

11:05: Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN), world champion at 70kg, makes his 74kg debut with a controlled 6-1 victory over James GREEN (USA). Aoyagi scored a stepout to lead 2-1 before scoring two counter takedowns to finish the bout as the winner.

10:55: David CARR (USA) took his own time to get going but he manages a victory via fall over Aliakbar FAZLI (IRI) after building a 13-2 lead at 74kg.

10:45: World champion at 79kg Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE) seemed in complete control of his first bout at 86kg against Abolfazl SHAMSIPOUR (IRI), leading 6-1 with a minute remaining. However, Shamsipour mounts a comeback, scoring six points in the final minute and beat the Greek world champion 7-6  

10:40: First period technical superiority, 10-0, win for AMAN (IND) against Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) who is in action for the first time since winning a gold medal at the Ulaanbaatar Open in June last year.

10:30: Welcome to the Zagreb Open Ranking Series. Day one of the competition and we have six Freestyle weight classes in action. Multiple Olympic and world medalists in action today.