#WrestleRome

'Focused' Chamizo Steals Gold Against Burroughs at Matteo Pellicone

Sunday, March 7, 2021 - 20:53 By Vinay Siwach

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OSTIA (Italy), March 8 --- After a 25-month wait, Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) and Frank CHAMIZO (ITA) finally met again on the mat.

At the Yasar Dogu in 2019, Chamizo had decided to sit out of the final, giving Burroughs the win. This was five months after the American had scored his third win over Chamizo at the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov event in February.

Sure, the pandemic delayed the matchup but Burroughs' loss at the 2019 World Championships  semifinal to Zaurbek SIDAKOV (RUS) in September deprived the fans of a rematch in NurSultan, Kazakhstan. Chamizo was on the other side of the bracket and reached the final against Sidakov.

But on a blockbuster Sunday at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series event in Rome, the two superstars clashed for the sixth time in what is quickly becoming wrestling's prized rivalry in recent years.

For the record, Chamizo closed the gap with Burroughs in head-to-head to 4-2 after winning a tense gold medal bout 3-2 at 74kg. Two of Chamizo's points were step out while one was for Burroughs passivity. Even Burroughs scored his two via step outs.

“I am feeling good. I did not even know he (Jordan) will be here,” Chamizo said. “I thought it would be an easy competition. My training is less but I am focused. That's what it is right now. I'm focused on my goals.”

Both wrestlers got into an intense scramble in the first period of the bout which resulted in Chamizo scoring a step out from a situation that seemed advantageous for Burroughs.

Chamizo explained the situation in the post-final interview. “I think he is a little bit scared when there's a scramble,” he said. “He loses focus and that's when I attack. When there is a scramble, he loses focus. He is like I don't want to be here.”

The bout was once again the most anticipated bout in Rome and like always was a medal bout. The two have wrestled for world medals, Ranking Series medals including the title which shows how dominant the two have been in their weight categories.

While Burroughs had talked about how is focused on winning his second Olympic gold medal after missing it in 2016 at Rio, Chamizo has been particularly expressive about being the top guy at 74kg.

Every tournament before the grand event in August will only be a virtual pit stop for wrestler but Chamizo thinks that the changes he has brought in himself will be enough to propel him to the top when it will matter the most five months from now.

“Before, I had training but I had no focus,” he said. “Now, I am a real 74kg. You see the difference between 2018 and now. Jordan is the best. For me, I always prepare for him. But I am the champion. I don't want to say but I the new man.”

It was evident in the final bout as well as Chamizo controlled the center of the mat instead of chasing Burroughs who has a tendency to pounce on the slightest of openings offered the opponent.

“I am training for this. I want to be in the center against him,” he said. “He has good scrambles and attacks. He is like a train. So I want to stay in the center and see what happens.”

Leading into the finals, Burroughs outscored his opponents 9-1 in the two bouts. 2019 Asian champion and world bronze medalist Daniyar KAISINOV (KAZ) was the first to fall to the American 5-0 before he beat Narsingh YADAV (IND) 4-1 in the semifinal.

On the other side, Chamizo had a roller-coaster especially in the quarter-final against Malik AMINE (SMR). Chamizo was at one point trailing Amine but managed to come back and win 13-8.

In the semifinal, Chamizo closed a 6-0 win over Franklin GOMEZ (PUR) to set up the summit clash against Burroughs.

Bajrang PUNIA (IND)

In other freestyle action, Bajrang PUNIA (IND) defended his title at 65kg with a tense 2-2 win over Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL) in the gold medal bout. This was Punia's fifth gold medal at a Ranking Series event, making him the most successful freestyle wrestler at the series.

In a far from ideal bout in the final, Punia was left struggling to find an opening against Ochir. He was put on shot-clock and did not score giving a 1-0 lead to Ochir, who later scored a step out to lead 2-0. With 30 seconds to go, Ochir went for a shot but missed, while Punia capitalized on it to take a takedown with 14 seconds remaining.

“It was a good match with him. I am wrestling after a year off and he is also an Olympic qualified wrestler so it was a tough bout,” Punia said. “Before the Olympics, I want to wrestle every Tokyo qualified wrestler..”

Punia began with a 7-0 win over Selim KOZAN (TUR) but was tested by Joseph McKEENA (USA) in the semifinal. It was a rematch from last year which Punia won 4-2. This time, he improved the score to 6-3.

Ochir, on the other hand, dominated his opponents starting with Hamza ALACA (TUR) who he beat 10-0 before a 4-0 win against ROHIT (IND).

Zahid VALENCIA (IUSA)

In an all-USA final at 86kg, former junior world silver medalist Zahid VALENCIA claimed a stunning 11-0 victory over Mark HALL (USA), himself a two-time junior world champion at 74kg.

Valencia was undoubtedly the top performer of the day as he outscored his opponents 34-2, winning all his bouts via technical superiority.

Another American wrestler who struck gold was Alec PANTALEO (USA) at 70kg. He defeated world silver medalist at 65kg Daulet NIYAZBEKOV (KAZ) twice in the day to claim the gold medal.

The surprise came at 61kg where U23 World Championships silver medalist Adlan ASKAROV (KAZ) defeated world and European silver medalist Suleyman ATLI (TUR) 8-3 in the first bout of the day. The Kazak youngster remained unbeaten for the day and claimed the gold medal while Atli settled for silver.  

World Championships bronze medalist Nurislam SANAYEV captured the top position at 57kg by defeating Nicholas SUNIARO (USA) twice in the day. In the final, Sanayev beat the US wrestler 4-2 while in the day the score was 3-2.

The 79kg gold medal was captured by veteran Galymzhan USSERBAYEV (KAZ). He had to see off a late challenge from David Vincent MC FADDEN (USA) before winning 6-5.

Rio Olympics silver medalist at 86kg Selim YASAR (TUR) won the gold medal at 92kg to close out the competition which was the first Ranking Series event of the year.

RESULTS

Final #WrestleRome MFS team scores

GOLD: USA (190 points)
SILVER: Kazakhstan (178 points)
BRONZE: Turkey (113 points)
FOURTH: India (98 points)
FIFTH: Italy (48 points)

Men's freestyle

57kg
GOLD: Nurislam SANAYEV (KAZ) df. Nicholas Raymond SURIANO (USA) 4-2
BRONZE: Givi DAVIDOVI (ITA) df. Ali M M ABURUMAILA (PLE) 4-0

61kg
GOLD: Adlan ASKAROV (KAZ)
SILVER: Suleyman ATLI (TUR)
BRONZE: Tyler Lee GRAFF (USA)

65kg
GOLD: Bajrang PUNIA (IND) df. Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL) 2-2
BRONZE: Hamza ALACA (TUR) df. ROHIT (IND) 12-10
BRONZE: Joseph Christopher McKENNA 8-2 Selim KOZAN (TUR)

70kg
GOLD: Alec William PANTALEO (USA) df. Daulet NIYAZBEKOV (KAZ) 4-0
BRONZE: Vishal KALIRAMANA (IND) df. Syrbaz TALGAT (KAZ) 5-1

74kg
GOLD: Frank CHAMIZO (ITA) df. Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) 3-2
BRONZE: Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ) df. Franklin GOMEZ MATOS (PUR) 8-1
BRONZE: Daniyar KAISANOV df. Narsingh Pancham YADAV (IND) 5-0

79kg
GOLD: Galymzhan USSERBAYEV (KAZ) df. David Vincent MC FADDEN (USA) 6-5
BRONZE: Muhammet Nuri KOTANOGLU (TUR) df. Ramazan Ishak SARI (TUR) 6-0

86kg
GOLD: Zahid VALENCIA (USA) df. Mark HALL (USA) 11-0
BRONZE: Myles Najee MARTIN (USA) df. Clayton Steven PYE (CAN) 12-2
BRONZE: Yeskali DAULETKAZY (TUR) df. Fatih ERDIN (TUR) via VIN

92kg
GOLD: Selim YASAR (TUR)
SILVER: Erhan YAYLACI (TUR)
BRONZE: Elkhan ASSADOV (KAZ)

#development

Introduction to Refereeing course hosted on sidelines of FISU Combat Sports

Monday, October 3, 2022 - 13:22 By United World Wrestling Press

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SAMSUN, Turkey (October 3) -- Introduction to Refereeing Course was held from September 23 to 27, 2022 in Samsun, Turkey on the sidelines of the FISU University World Cup Combat Sports.

The course, held with the collaboration of FISU for the first time, was supported by the Turkish University and the national federation. It was conducted by UWW Educator, Levent SEN.

UWW Referee Commission member Ibrahim CICIOGLU and FISU Wrestling Technical Committee Chair coordinated the composition of candidates who were from different universities in Turkey.

The first purpose of this course was to bring the young student-athletes, who gave up wrestling at a young age, back to the wrestling family. A total of 16 university students [10 men and six women] attended the course.

FISU President Leonz EDER and President of Turkish University Sports Federation Dr. Mehmet GUNAY attended the opening session of the course. 

After the course, Eder said that FISU emphasizes collaborations with the international federation and the course is a good chance for the former athletes to turn and serve their sport in a different aspect. He also thanked UWW President Nenad LALOVIC for giving this opportunity to the students.

TUSF President Gunay said he is very happy to be involved and facilitate such a course and will always provide support to improve wrestling at the university level.

During the course, both the theory and practice were conducted with presentations to depict all things refereeing. In the practical session, every trainee had one minute for refereeing. Their performance was video recorded and the UWW Educator reviewed their refereeing mechanism and gave his assessments for the same.

The trainees also had the chance to feel the atmosphere of competition as all of them attended the FISU World Cups competition from September 26 to 30. They were the referee candidates for two days.

All 16 of them were present to analyze the weigh-in procedure of the competition, the meeting of the referees before the bouts and the bout itself. They also got the experience of sitting next to the timekeeper and working as a timekeeper.

Other activities included drawings by the trainees of what a referee looks like, making a house of cards using only one hand inside the time limit which was 10 minutes and four different puzzles [for every group one puzzle].

The goal of these activities was to improve team coordination and find solutions when faced with problems.

A rock, paper, scissors tournament was also used to explain the pairing system. Every trainee took numbers from the draw and placed them in a bracket. According to the pairing system, they competed in the rock, paper, scissors game.

From the elimination to the bronze and gold medal matches, the trainee who won two of the three games was the winner. For the bronze and gold medal matches, a best-of-five system was followed.

To work on mechanics, a mirror activity was conducted with one person walking around and others who must do exactly what he does -- hold a whistle, change levels, score points, start using a whistle and likewise.

Finally, a shadow game during the practical session included a trainee practicing refereeing on the mat without wrestlers to imagine the situation that can arise during the bout.