European Games

Belarus Captures 2 Golds on Final Day of Women's Wrestling at European Games

Friday, June 28, 2019 - 19:26 By United World Wrestling Press

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MINSK, Belarus (June 28) - Belarusian wrestlers Iryna KURACHKINA (57kg) and Vasilisa MARZALIUK (76kg) gave the home crowd something to celebrate on the final day of the women's wrestling competition at the European Games in Minsk, Belarus. 

Kurachkina and Marzaliuk captured gold medals in dominant fashion on Friday at the Minsk Sports Palace. Neither wrestler surrendered a point in the finals.

Kurachkina, a 2017 world bronze medalist, rolled to a 10-0 technical superiority over Mimi HRISTOVA (BUL) in the gold-medal match at 57kg. She used three takedowns in the first period to build a 6-0 lead. Kurachkina closed out the match early in the second period, scoring a fourth takedown, which she followed up with a gut wrench to close her spectacular finals performance.

Marzaliuk, a four-time world medalist, won her second straight European Games gold medal, beating Francy RAEDELT (GER) 9-0 in the finals at 76kg. She controlled the match from start to finish, using a step out and takedown in the first period to go up 3-0 at the break. Marzaliuk pulled away in the third period with three more takedowns.  

Joining Marzaliuk as a repeat winner at the European Games was Mariya STADNIK (AZE) at 50kg. Stadnik, a three-time Olympic medalist and five-time world medalist, handled returning world bronze medalist Oksana LIVACH (UKR) 7-1 in the gold-medal match at 50kg. 

After scoring with a step out, Stadnik scored a takedown on the world No. 2 Livach, which she followed up with a gut wrench to grab a 5-0 lead. She added another takedown in the final period, while giving up just a point off a step out. Stadnik outscored her opponents 23-2 at the European Games.

Yuliia TKACH (UKR), a four-time world medalist, won a gold medal at 62kg, improving on her silver-medal performance at the 2015 European Games. She topped Elmira GAMBAROVA (AZE) 4-0 in the finals. 

Tkach, ranked No.4 in the world, scored a takedown in the first period off a single leg attack to take a 2-0 lead. In the second period, Gambarova attempted an arm throw, which Tkach countered for another takedown, which closed out the scoring. 

Alyona KOLESNIK (AZE) and Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) earned the bronze medals at 50kg.

Mariia KUZNETSOVA (RUS) knocked off world No.1 Taybe YUSEIN (BUL) 7-4 in a bronze-medal match at 62kg. The other bronze at 62kg was won by Kriszta INCZE (ROU).

Epp MAE (EST), a 2015 world bronze medalist, defeated Olympic champion Natalia VOROBEVA (RUS) in dramatic fashion to win a bronze medal at 76kg. Vorobeva led most of the match before Mae scored the go-ahead points as time expired to steal the victory, 5-3. Iselin SOLHEIM (NOR) won by fall over Sabira ALIYEVA (AZE) to claim a bronze medal at 76kg. 

RESULTS

Women's Wrestling 

50kg
GOLD - Mariya STADNIK (AZE) df. Oksana LIVACH (UKR), 7-1
BRONZE - Evin DEMIRHAN (TUR) df. Anna LUKASIAK (POL), 6-2
BRONZE - Miglena SELISHKA (BUL) df. Viyaleta CHYRYK (BLR), 6-0 

57kg
GOLD - Iryna KURACHKINA (BLR) df. Mimi HRISTOVA (BUL), 10-0
BRONZE - Alyona KOLESNIK (AZE) df. Bediha GUN (TUR), 9-4
BRONZE - Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) df. Grace BULLEN (NOR), 11-4

62kg
GOLD - Yuliia TKACH (UKR) df. Elmira GAMBAROVA (AZE), 4-0
BRONZE - Mariia KUZNETSOVA (RUS) df. Taybe YUSEIN (BUL), 7-4
BRONZE - Kriszta INCZE (ROU) df. Katarzyna MADROWSKA (POL), 8-2

76kg
GOLD - Vasilisa MARZALIUK (BLR) df. Francy RAEDELT (GER), 9-0
BRONZE - Iselin SOLHEIM (NOR) df. Sabira ALIYEVA (AZE), Fall (1:13)
BRONZE - Epp MAE (EST) df. Natalia VOROBEVA (RUS), 5-3

#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.