#UnitedWorldWrestling

Dittmann re-elected as European Council President

By United World Wrestling Press

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (April 6) — Karl Martin DITTMANN was re-elected as the President of the European Council at the election held Sunday on the sidelines of the European Championships in Bratislava.

The elections were held for the Executive Committee of the UWW-European Council for seven members and 11 nominations were received for the same. Four members were re-elected while three new members were added after they won the majority vote of at least 17 from total votes of 33.

Four re-elected members:

Razvan PIRCALABU (ROU)
Csilla ALI (HUN)
Karl-Martin DITTMANN (GER)
Georgy BRYUSOV (RUS)

Three newly elected members are:

Yusif ABBASOV (SRB)
Edisher MACHAIDZE (GEO)
Salvatore FINIZIO (ITA)

Pircalabu was also re-elected as the Vice-President and so was Ali who was re-elected as the Secretary of the council.

Onder YAKSI (TUR), who was the member of the European Council, was approved to be the co-opted member of the council at the general assembly.

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Kougioumtsidis, Antim, Jafarov named 2023 Rising Stars

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 13) -- Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE), ANTIM (UWW) and Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE) have been named as UWW's Rising Stars of the Year for their phenomenal performances in 2023.

Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE) has shown his mettle in the past but the 2023 World Championships made him the one for the future. He began the year with gold at the U23 Europeans, silver at the senior Europeans and his run in Belgrade made him the Rising Star in Freestyle.

At the Olympic weight of 74kg, he opened the World Championships by beating Olympic silver medallist Magomedkhabib KADIMAGOMEDOV (AIN), stunned world silver medallist Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) and almost checked Kyle DAKE (USA) in the semifinals. He then returned to earn a Paris Olympic quota by beating Turan BAYRAMOV (AZE).

 

In women's wrestling, ANTIM (UWW) was awarded the Rising Star for her performances in 2023. She won a silver medal in her senior Asian Championships debut, defended her U20 world title and then won a bronze medal at the World Championships at 53kg. It was her first senior-level World Championships and an unfazed Antim handed defeats to world champion Dom PARRISH (USA), Roksana ZASINA (POL) and European champion Jonna MALMGREN (SWE). She came in touching distance of entering the final but was stunned in the final second of the semifinal by Vanesa KALADZINSKAYA.

The medal in Belgrade made the 19-year-old the youngest Indian to win a medal at the World Championships. Soon after, Antim traveled to Hangzhou, China for the Asian Games and won a bronze medal at 53kg.

Teenage phenom Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE) Hasrat Jafarov another step towards stardom as he added a World Championships silver medal to his resume as he reached the 67kg Greco-Roman final. Not only that, Jafarov won his first European title, gold at the Ranking Series and is now the biggest threat for gold for the Paris Olympics. In Belgrade, he defeated Kristizan VANCZA (HUN), Mohammadreza GERAEI (IRI) and Slavik GALSTYAN (ARM) before settling for silver.

Jafarov already has world titles at the U20 and U23 level and his remarkable rise at just 20 years of age wins him the Rising Star award in Greco-Roman.