#BackToWrestling

With Eye on Safety, Lithuania Returns to Practice Mats

By United World Wrestling Press

VILNIUS, Lithuania (May 22) -- With few cases of COVID-19 nationwide, Lithuania's top wrestlers are returning to the mat, albeit with safety precautions in place. 

Lithuania has only seen 1600 total cases of COVID-19 and 60 deaths. Despite the lower numbers the wrestling federation and the athletes are taking every precaution they can to ensure the health and safety of the wrestlers on the mat. The new guidelines for practice includes increased cleaning protocols, temperature checks, hand sanitization and face masks (for anyone not actively wrestling).

Athletes’ Commission member Mindaugas EZERSKIS mentioned the practices during Monday's Athlete Webinar with the commission and UWW President Nenad Lalovic. Ezerskis said the team is training during the week and taking weekends off with a focus on preparing for the Olympics and Olympic Qualification events. 

You can watch the full video, here.

#WrestleAlexandria

WATCH: 10 freestyle finals from Ibrahim Moustafa

By Vinay Siwach

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (March 2) -- The Ibrahim Moustafa Ranking Series closed off with freestyle. The gold medal bouts in Alexandria were nothing short of thrilling with gold medals to Turkey, the USA, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Georgia, Ukraine and Slovakia.

Here are the 10 gold medal bouts from the second Ranking Series event of the year.

GOLD: 57kg - Suleyman ATLI (TUR) vs. Andrii YATSENKO (UKR) 

Semifinal: 74kg - Iakub SHIKHDZHAMALOV (ROU) vs. Soner DEMIRTAS (TUR) [The at 74kg did not take place after Vincenzo JOSEPH (USA) got injured]