Grappling

Future is Bright for Grappling in Kazakhstan

By Marc Berman

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (September 9th) -- The Kazakhstani grappling team may not have won a bevy of gold medals, but the Central Asian nation showed great improvement at the 2018 Grappling World Championships.

After four tough days of competition the host nation walked away with a 3rd place finish in the women’s senior division and fifth place in the men’s senior division. The nation also boasted finalists in the women’s 53kg and 58kg division and scored a bronze and silver on the men’s side.

In preparation for the World Championships Kazakhstan hosted qualifying events in multiple cities before the national qualifier earlier this year.

Head grappling coach Renat SITNAZAROV was pleased with the process of forming the team. “We were able to gather our strongest athletes together and bring them here for the championships.”

In preparation for the event the team brought together athletes from around the country to train together and work on new techniques. In preparation for Grappling events team members compete in various other styles, freestyle, Greco-Roman, judo, sambo and jiu-jitsu.

When it came time for the actual competition Sitnazarov and his coaching staff worked with each athlete before each round to develop a winning strategy.

Since 2010 Coach Renat has seen grappling take off in Kazakhstan, becoming more popular every year. “I see Grappling growing every year and is now very popular with many athletes taking part of events here in Kazakhstan. Now with athletes such as Miyao coming from other styles to compete in Grappling, I see it becoming a big event.”

Catch up on all the action you miss on Flograppling.com in the United States and internationally on United World Wrestling.

#WrestleParis

Freestyle: 2024 Paris Olympic Games Qualified Nations

By United World Wrestling Press

PARIS, France -- The Paris Olympics 2024 will have 288 wrestlers competing in 18 weight classes in a three-stage process beginning with the World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

The first stage of Paris qualification was the World Championships, held in Belgrade from September 16 to 24. The tournament offered five quotas for each of the 18 Olympic categories -- a total of 90 quotas. Wrestlers who win gold, silver or bronze medals will earn a spot for their countries. Additionally, the losers of the bronze-medal matches will wrestle in a playoff to determine the fifth allocation in Belgrade.

The second stage was the continental qualifiers with wrestlers winning the quotas at the Pan-American, African & Oceania, European and Asian OG Qualifiers.

The third stage will be the last chance World Olympic Qualifier in Istanbul, Turkiye from May 9 to 12 with three wrestlers from each weight class earning a spot. The two finalists will earn Paris 2024 quotas and the third will be decided by a playoff between the two bronze medal winners.

Here's the list of all the Paris Olympics-qualified nations in Freestyle:

Freestyle

57kg

From World Championships
Serbia (Stevan MICIC)
Japan (Rei HIGUCHI)
Albania (Zelimkhan ABAKAROV)
Armenia (Arsen HARUTYUNYAN)
Zavur UGUEV as an Individual Neutral Athlete

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Mexico (Roman BRAVO YOUNG)
Puerto Rico (Darian CRUZ)

From Africa & Oceania Qualifier
Egypt (Gamal MOHAMED)
Guinea Bissau (Diamantino IUNA FAFE)

From European OG Qualifier
Azerbaijan (Aliabbas RZAZADE)
Aryan TSIUTRYN as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Kyrgyzstan (Bekzat ALMAZ UULU)
Uzbekistan (Gulomjon ABDULLAEV)

65kg

From World Championships
Hungary (Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV)
Puerto Rico (Sebastian RIVERA)
Shamil MAMEDOV as an Individual Neutral Athlete
Armenia (Vazgen TEVANYAN)
Iran (Rahman AMOUZAD)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Mexico (Austin GOMEZ)
Cuba (Alejandro VALDES)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Australia (Georgii OKOROKOV)
Samoa (Gaku AKAZAWA)

From European OG Qualifier
Georgia (Goderdzi DZEBISASHVILI)
Azerbaijan (Haji ALIYEV)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Japan (Kotaro KIYOOKA)
Kyrgyzstan (Ernazar AKMATALIEV)

74kg

From World Championships
Zaurbek SIDAKOV as Individual Neutral Athlete
USA (Kyle DAKE)
Serbia (Hetik CABOLOV)
Japan (Daichi TAKATANI)
Greece (Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Venezuela (Anthony MONTERO)
Cuba (Geandry GARZON)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Guinea Bissau (Bacar NDUM)
Egypt (Amr HUSSEN)

From European OG Qualifier
Azerbaijan (Turan BAYRAMOV)
Mahamedkhabib KADZIMAHAMEDAU as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Uzbekistan (Bekzod ABDURAKHMONOV)
Yones EMAMI (Iran)

86kg

From World Championships
USA (David TAYLOR)
Iran (Hassan YAZDANI)
Kazakhstan (Azamat DALUETBEKOV)
San Marino (Myles AMINE)
Uzbekistan (Javrail SHAPIEV)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Puerto Rico (Ethan RAMOS)
Canada (Alexander MOORE)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Australia (Jayden LAWRENCE)
Algeria (Fateh BENFERDJALLAH)

From European OG Qualifier
Artur NAIFONOV as Individual Neutral Athlete
Azerbaijan (Osman NURMAGOMEDOV)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Japan (Hayato ISHIGURO)
Mongolia (Bat Erdene BYAMBASUREN)

97kg

From World Championships
Bahrain (Akhmed TAZHUDINOV)
Azerbaijan (Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV)
United States (Kyle SNYDER)
Georgia (Givi MATCHRASHVILI)
Turkiye (Ibrahim CIFTCI)

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Cuba (Arturo SILOT TORRES)
Dominic Republic (Luis PEREZ)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Egypt (Mostafa ELDERS)
South Africa (Nicolaas DE LANGE)

From European OG Qualifier
Alikhan ZHABRAILOV as Individual Neutral Athlete
Aliaksandr HUSHTYN as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Asian OG Qualifier
Kazakhstan (Alisher YERGALI)
Iran (Amirali AZARPIRA)

125kg

From World Championships
Iran (Amir Hossein ZARE)
Georgia (Geno PETRIASHVILI)
Turkiye (Taha AKGUL)
USA (Mason PARRIS)
Abdulla KURBANOV as Individual Neutral Athlete

From Pan-Am Qualifier
Puerto Rico (Jonovan SMITH)
Canada (Amarveer DHESI)

From African & Oceania Qualifier
Nigeria (Ashton MUTUWA)
Egypt (Diaaeldin ABDELMOTTALEB)

From European OG Qualifier
Dzianis KHRAMIANKOU as Individual Neutral Athlete
Azerbaijan (Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI)

From Asian OG Qualifier
Mongolia (Lkhagvagerel MUNKHTUR)
Kazakhstan (Yusup BATIRMURZAEV)