#WrestleBaku

Europe's best in Baku for Paris 2024 qualification in Greco-Roman

By United World Wrestling Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (April 4) -- Europe qualified four wrestlers for the Paris Olympics at 87kg from the World Championships in Belgrade. That number is the highest for Europe in any Greco-Roman weight class.

Yet, some of the top wrestlers in the continent have not been able to earn a Paris 2024 spot. Those stars will clash at the European OG Qualifier in Baku from April 5 to 7 to earn the two quotas available at 87kg.

Leading the field at 87kg is newly minted European champion Aleksandr KOMAROV (SRB) who looked in top form at the European Championships. In the final, he even convincingly beat world champion Ali CENGIZ (TUR).

Islam ABBASOV (AZE) is seeded number one at 87kg and Komarov is number four resulting in the two falling on the same side of the bracket. The two met in the semifinal at the European Championships which Komarov won 3-1. European bronze medalist Kiyrl MASKEVICH (AIN) gets the second seed and Alex KESSIDIS (SWE) is third, putting them together on the lower side of the bracket.

Though they will be unseeded, former U23 world champion Milad ALIRZAEV (AIN) and former European champion Turpal BISULTANOV (DEN) will be roaring to go as the latter returns from injury. Former U23 world champion Exauce MUKUBU (NOR) also hopes to earn the quota.

A few other big clashes are expected in Baku, especially with wrestlers from non-Olympic weight classes moving to the Olympic ones.

Leri ABULADZE (GEO), a 63kg world champion, is moving down to 60kg to earn an Olympic quota. But it won't be easy for him. A two-time U23 world champion Anvar ALLAKHIAROV (AIN) and European champion Nihat MAMMADLI (AZE) will be the biggest challenges for the unseeded Abuladze.

Add to the line-up top seed and Tokyo Olympian Victor CIOBANU (MDA) who reached the final at the European Championships before losing to Mammadli. Ciobanu and Mammadli are separated by seeding and will not face each other in Baku. Leo TUDEZCA (FRA) enjoys the third seed and Jacopo SANDRON (ITA) will be seeded fourth.

Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Parviz NASIBOV (UKR) will be looking to return to the Olympics by winning a quota in Baku. He was at 72kg at the European Championships and won a bronze medal. The European champion at 72kg, Selcuk CAN (TUR), is dropping to 67kg.

Nasibov will be seeded number four in Baku which pits him on the same side as top seed Krisztian VANCZA (HUN). Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA) is seeded second with Mihai MIHUT (ROU) getting the third seed.

European bronze medalist Abu AMAEV (BUL) is entered for the tournament along with some hammers like Diego CHKHIKVADZE (GEO), Kristupas SLEIVA (LTU), Morten THORESEN (NOR), Gevorg SAHAKYAN (POL) and Niklas OEHLEN (SWE).

At 97kg, Magomed MURTAZALIEV (AIN) will look to build on his silver-medal finish at the European Championships and earn a spot for the Paris Games. He defeated Kiril MILOV (BUL) and Arvi SAVOLAINEN (FIN) before losing to Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM).

Milov has pulled out due to an injury and will not be competing at the Paris Olympics. Savolainen will be in Baku and seeded number one for the competition followed by Mindaugas VENCKAITIS (LTU) at number two and Mihail KAJAIA (SRB) at three. Aleksandar STJEPANETIC (SWE) is seeded number four.

Alex SZOKE (HUN), Nikoloz KAKHELASHVILI (ITA), Tyrone STERKENBURG (NED) and Felix BALDAUF (NOR), among others, will be drawn randomly.

European champion and two-time Olympic medalist Sergei SEMENOV (AIN) has the best chance to earn a Paris 2024 spot. He stunned Riza KAYAALP (TUR) in the 130kg final, denying the legend a record-breaking 13th European title. Despite his gold, Semenov will be unseeded in Baku.

Romas FRIDRIKAS (LTU) is the top seed followed by 2012 London Olympic silver medalist Heiki NABI (EST) at second. Beka KANDELAKI (AZE) will be number three and Alin ALEXUC CIURARIU (ROU) is number four.

At 77kg, world champion at 72kg Ibrahim GHANEM (FRA), former world silver medalist Zoltan LEVAI (HUN), U23 world champion Alexandrin GUTU (MDA), Viktor NEMES (SRB) and former world champion Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR) will battle for the two spots.

#WrestleParis

Paris 2024 seeds announced for Freestyle, Greco-Roman, Women’s Wrestling

By Eric Olanowski

PARIS, (July 12) — For the first time ever, the Olympic Games will be seeding the top eight wrestlers in each weight class. Wrestlers who competed in the 2023 World Championships, 2024 Continental Championships, 2024 Zagreb Open Ranking Series and the 2024 Hungarian Ranking Series event have accumulated points towards their seeds at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

UWW RANKING RULE BOOK

Apart from the seeded eight wrestlers, the remaining eight wrestlers, who round out the 16-person bracket, will be randomly drawn into the bracket the day before each style begins in Paris.

The bracket will be structured as follows:

- The top side will feature the No. 1, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 8 seeded wrestlers.
- The bottom side will feature the No. 2, No. 3, No. 6, and No. 7 seeded wrestlers.

If the seeds hold true through to the finals, the bracket will play out as follows:

Quarterfinals:
- Top side: No. 1 vs. No. 8; No. 4 vs. No. 5
- Bottom side: No. 2 vs. No. 7; No. 3 vs. No. 6

Semifinals:
- Top Side: No. 1 vs. No. 4
- Bottom Side: No. 2 vs. No. 3

Finals:
- No. 1 vs. No. 2

Here are the top eight seeded athletes in all three styles for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games:

Freestyle
57kg

No. 1 Stevan MICIC (SRB)
No. 2 Rei HIGUCHI (JPN )
No. 3 Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM)
No. 4 Meirambek KARTBAY (KAZ)
No. 5 Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB)
No. 6 Aman AMAN (IND)
No. 7 Wanhao ZOU (CHN)
No. 8 Gulomjon ABDULLAEV (UZB)

65kg
No. 1 Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM)
No. 2 Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI)
No. 3 Ismail MUSUKAEV (HUN)
No. 4 Sebastian RIVERA (PUR)
No. 5 Maxim SACULTAN (MDA)
No. 6 Haji ALIYEV (AZE)
No. 7 Islam DUDAEV (ALB)
No. 8 Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL)

74kg
No. 1 Kyle DAKE (USA)
No. 2 Turan BAYRAMOV (AZE)
No. 3 Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE)
No. 4 Daichi TAKATANI (JPN)
No. 5 Hetik CABALOV (SRB)
No. 6 Feng LU (CHN)
No. 7 Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK)
No. 8 Bacar NDUM (GBS)

86kg
No. 1 Azamat DAULETBEKOV (KAZ)
No. 2 Hassan YAZDANICHARATI (IRI)
No. 3 Myles AMINE (SMR)
No. 4 Javrail SHAPIEV (UZB)
No. 5 Magomed RAMAZANOV (BUL)
No. 6 Bat BYAMBASUREN (MGL)
No. 7 Dauren KURUGLIEV (GRE)
No. 8 Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN)

97kg  
No. 1 Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE)
No. 2 Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN)
No. 3 Kyle SNYDER (USA)
No. 4 Ibrahim CIFTCI (TUR)
No. 5 Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO)
No. 6 Erik THIELE (GER)
No. 7 Alisher YERGALI (KAZ)
No. 8 Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL)

125kg
No. 1 Amir ZARE (IRI)
No. 2 Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO)
No. 3 Mason PARRIS (USA)
No. 4 Taha AKGUL (TUR)
No. 5 Daniel LIGETI (HUN)
No. 6 Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI (AZE)
No. 7 Robert BARAN (POL)
No. 8 Zhiwei DENG (CHN)

Women’s Wrestling
50kg

No. 1 Yui SUSAKI (JPN)
No. 2 Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL)
No. 3 Ziqi FENG (CHN)
No. 4 Evin DEMIRHAN (TUR)
No. 5 Alisson CARDOZO REY (COL)
No. 6 Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA)
No. 7 Mariya STADNIK (AZE)
No. 8 Oksana LIVACH (UKR)

53kg
No. 1 Lucia YEPEZ GUZMAN (ECU)
No. 2 Emma MALMGREN (SWE)
No. 3 Akari FUJINAMI (JPN)
No. 4 ANTIM (IND)
No. 5 Maria PREVOLARAKI (GRE)|
No. 6 Christianah OGUNSANYA (NGR)
No. 7 Qianyu PANG (CHN)
No. 8 Andreea ANA (ROU)

57kg
No. 1 Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN)
No. 2 Anastasia NICHITA (MDA)
No. 3 Odunayo ADEKUOROYE (NGR)
No. 4 Anhelina LYSAK (POL)
No. 5 Helen MAROULIS (USA)
No. 6 Kexin HONG (CHN)
No. 7 Giulia PENALBER (BRA)
No. 8 Luisa VALVERDE (ECU)

62kg
No. 1 Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ)
No. 2 Sakura MOTOKI (JPN)
No. 3 Grace BULLEN (NOR)
No. 4 Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR)
No. 5 Bilyana DUDOVA (BUL)
No. 6 Luisa NIEMESCH (GER)
No. 7 Ana GODINEZ (CAN)
No. 8 Kayla MIRACLE (USA)

68kg
No. 1 Buse CAVUSOGLU TOSUN (TUR)
No. 2 Delgermaa ENKHSAIKHAN (MGL)
No. 3 Koumba LARROQUE  (FRA)
No. 4 Irina RINGACI (MDA)
No. 5 Tetiana SOVA RIZHKO (UKR)
No. 6 Blessing OBORUDUDU (NGR)
No. 7 Soleymi CARABALLO HERNANDEZ (VEN)
No. 8 Feng ZHOU (CHN)

76kg
No. 1  Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ)
No. 2 Yuka KAGAMI (JPN)
No. 3 Tatiana RENTERIA (COL)
No. 4 Catalina AXENTE (ROU)
No. 5 Milaimys MARIN (CUB)
No. 6 Hannah RUEBEN (NGR)
No. 7 Justina DI STASIO (CAN)
No. 8 Bernadett NAGY (HUN)

Greco-Roman
60kg

No. 1 Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ)
No. 2 Liguo CAO (CHN)
No. 3 Victor CIOBANU (MDA)
No. 4 Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN)
No. 5 Mehdi MOHSEN NEJAD (IRI)
No. 6 Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
No. 7 Raiber RODRIGUEZ (VEN)
No. 8 Razvan ARNAUT (ROU)

67kg
No. 1 Hasrat JAFAROV (AZE)
No. 2 Luis ORTA (CUB)
No. 3 Slavik GALSTYAN (ARM)
No. 4 Mate NEMES (SRB)
No. 5 Amantur ISMAILOV (KGZ)
No. 6 Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA)
No. 7 Saeid ESMAEILI (IRI)
No. 8 Valentin PETIC (MDA)

77kg
No. 1 Nao KUSAKA (JPN)
No. 2 Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE)
No. 3 Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ)
No. 4 Malkhas AMOYAN (ARM)
No. 5 Yosvanys PENA FLORES (CUB)
No. 6 Demeu ZHADRAYEV (KAZ)
No. 7 Zoltan LEVAI (HUN)
No. 8 Aram VARDANYAN (UZB)

87kg
No. 1 Ali CENGIZ (TUR)
No. 2 David LOSONCZI (HUN)
No. 3 Semen NOVIKOV (BUL)
No. 4 Zhan BELENIUK (UKR)
No. 5 Nursultan TURSYNOV (KAZ)
No. 6 Bachir SID AZARA (ALG)
No. 7 Aleksandr KOMAROV (SRB)
No. 8 Carlos MUNOZ (COL)

97kg
No. 1 Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM)
No. 2 Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU (AIN)
No. 3 Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI)
No. 4 Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB)
No. 5 Arvi SAVOLAINEN (FIN)
No. 6 Mindaugas VENCKAITIS (LTU)
No. 7 Mihail KAJAIA (SRB)
No. 8 Kevin MEJIA (HON)

130kg
No. 1 Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI)
No. 2 Abdellatif MOHAMED (EGY)
No. 3 Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
No. 4 Alin ALEXUC CIURARIU (ROU)
No. 5 Heiki NABI (EST)
No. 6 Mantas KNYSTAUTAS (LTU)
No. 7 Yasmani ACOSTA (CHI)
No. 8 Seungchan LEE (KOR)

NOTE: These seeds are subject to change. The NOCs have until 24 hours before the start of the competition to make changes to their entries.