#Trnava2018

Iran Wins Three Greco-Roman Golds, Leads Russia by Three Points

Tuesday, September 18, 2018 - 21:33 By Eric Olanowski

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TRNAVA, Slovakia (September 18) – Iran went three-for-three in Greco-Roman gold medal bouts on Tuesday capturing a three-point team lead heading into the third and final day of Greco-Roman competition at the 2018 Junior World Championships in Trnava, Slovakia.

The trio of Amin MIRZAZADEH (IRI), Pouya NASERPOUR (IRI), and Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI) had the opportunity to carry their country’s flag around the mat after winning their first world titles. 

 In the 55kg gold-medal bout Naserpour, the junior Asian champion, gave up an early head pinch and trailed Tigran MINASYAN (ARM), 4-0 before going on a 9-0 run to claim his first junior world gold medal. 

Naserpour improved on his third-place finish from the 2017 Cadet World Championships with the 9-4 victory. 


Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI), 2018 junior world champion at 87kg. (Photo by Max Rose-Fyne) 

Saravi, this year’s junior Asian champion neutralized Ramon Rainer BETSCHART (SUI) in the 87kg finals, stopping Switzerland from winning its first-ever junior-level world gold. Saravi, who also won his first Junior world gold medal scored his five points from a passivity call and two gut wrenches. 

The third and final Iranian Asian champion to claim a world title on the second day of competition was Amin Mirzazadeh who shutout Armenia’s David OVASAPYAN, 5-0 in the 130kg gold medal match.  

Islam OPIEV (RUS) knocked off three world medalists on his way to the 77kg gold medal. (Photo by Max Rose-Fyne)

At 77kg, Russia’s Islam OPIEV capped off his improbable run to a junior world gold medal with three straight wins over a returning Tampere junior world medalists.  

Opiev had knocked off last year’s junior world silver medalist, Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ), 1-1 to make the semifinals where he stunned returning world champion Kamal BEY (USA), 7-1 to set up a finals date with India’s returning bronze medalist, Sajan SAJAN (IND). 

In his first world finals appearance, Opiev scored the first-period technical superiority victory, thumping Sajan, 8-0. 

In the opening 90 seconds, Sajan was hit with passivity and was thrown from the par terre position. With Sajan down, Opiev went to work, scoring six additional points from a pair of back-arches, followed by a feet over back exposure to take the 7-0 lead. 

The action was blown dead, and both wrestlers were brought up to their feet. In the standing position, Opeiv charged Sajan near the edge of the mat and picked up the match-ending eighth point, and the 77kg gold medal. 

Erbol BAKIROV (KGZ) does a backflip after winning the 63kg gold medal. (Photo by Max Rose-Fyne)

The final gold medal of the night went to Erbol BAKIROV (KGZ). After trailing 1-0, Bakirov put a sudden stop to the 63kg gold-medal bout, throwing Egypt’s Hassan Hassan MOHAMED to his back with a massive head-lock to win the gold medal. 

The final day of Greco-Roman action, along with the start of women’s wrestling, begins tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM local time. 

RESULTS

Team Scores
GOLD – Iran (75 points)
SILVER – Russia (72 points)
BRONZE – Kyrgyzstan (50 points)
Fourth – Armenia (50 points)
Fifth – India (47 points)

GR 55kg 
GOLD – Pouya Mohammad NASERPOUR (IRI) df. Tigran MINASYAN (ARM), 9-4

BRONZE - Emin SEFERSHAEV (RUS) df. Nurtazin KERIMBERDI UULU (KGZ), 6-1
BRONZE - Vijay VIJAY (IND) df. Cihat LIMAN (TUR), via fall

GR 63kg  
GOLD - Erbol BAKIROV (KGZ) df. Hassan Hassan Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY), via fall. 

BRONZE - Azamat KAIROV (RUS) df. Hrachya POGHOSYAN (ARM), 3-1 
BRONZE Krisztian VANCZA (HUN) vs. Sagar SAGAR (IND), 9-0 

GR 77kg 
GOLD - Islam OPIEV (RUS) df. Sajan SAJAN (IND), 8-0 

BRONZE - Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ) df. Kamal Ameer BEY (USA), 8-1
BRONZE - Per KURE (NOR) df. Dmytro GARDUBEI (UKR), 4-1

GR 87kg
GOLD - Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI) df. Ramon BETSCHART (SUI)

BRONZE - Ilia ERMOLENKO (RUS) df. Temuri TCHKUASELIDZE (GEO), 4-2 
BRONZE - Nazarshah FATULLAYEV (AZE) df. Maimaiti KAISAIER (CHN), 5-1 

130kg 
GOLD - Amin Mohammadzaman MIRZAZADEH (IRI) df. David OVASAPYAN (ARM), 5-0  

BRONZE - Franz RICHTER (GER) df. Beka MAKARIDZE (GEO), 10-0 
BRONZE - Cohlton SCHULTZ (USA) df. Ante MILKOVIC (CRO), 7-1 

#WrestleParis

Paris 2024: For France wrestling trio, Olympics come home. Literally

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 - 07:40 By United World Wrestling Press

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PARIS (July 17) -- To compete at a home Olympics can be an unparalleled career high for the best of athletes. Even more so for the three French wrestlers, for whom the Games have come home — quite literally.

When Koumba LARROQUE, Ameline DOUARRE and Mamadassa SYLLA check in at the Athletes Village in Seine Saint Denis and step on the mat at the picturesque venue in Champs de Mars, it’ll mark a culmination of their stories that took shape just a stone's throw away, at the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

 Koumba LARROQUE (FRA)
Koumba LARROQUE (FRA) at Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

Indeed, there are many wrestling strongholds in France. Dijon, roughly 320 km from Paris, is one such hub that is home to many young stars. And quite a few of them train at France’s National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance — commonly known as INSEP, a facility that’s also designated as the United World Wrestling Center.

However, the presence of wrestling stars who have honed their skills at Bagnolet, the famous Parisian club, in the French team is steeped in symbolism. Not least because it is located close to the two Olympic landmark sites.

But by competing at the home Games, the trio will also carry forward the commune’s century-long wrestling tradition, which also captures the growth of the sport between the two Olympics Paris has hosted.

Ameline DOUARRE (FRA)Ameline DOUARRE (FRA) will compete at Paris Olympics in 62kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

It was exactly a hundred years ago, in 1924, that the Association Sportive et Gymnasnique de Bagnolet reinvented and transformed itself into a sports club, kick-starting a revolution of sorts in the area not too far from Paris’s city center.

Nothing nails down Bagnolet’s wrestling culture more than the fact that, according to a survey on the club’s website, two out of three youngsters wrestled. However, it was only after an agreement was reached with the department of Seine Saint Denis — the heart of the Games where the Athletes Village is located — that the sport really took off and the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93 came into being in its current form in 2005.

From Mélonin NOUMONVI, the 2014 Greco-Roman world champion, to Olympic gold medalist Steeve GUENOT and his bronze medal-winning brother Christophe as well as the latest sensation, the former U20 and U23 world champion Larroque – many French champions have spent key years of their development at the club.

But Larroque, Douarre and Sylla have a chance to do something none of their predecessors could: compete in their own backyard.

Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA)Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA) after his qualification for the 2024 Paris Games. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Sylla, who discovered wrestling at age 15, finished fifth at the European Championships this year and will compete in the 67 kg Greco-Roman category. Douarre is a last-minute entrant to the draw after withdrawals in the 62 kg weight class.

Sylla, who was a second-choice wrestler for the qualification tournament in Baku, became the first wrestler from France to qualify in Grec-Roman since the 2012 London Games, the last time France won an Olympic medal in wrestling, a bronze by 2008 Beijing champion Steve GUENOT (FRA).

Larroque, though, remains the flag-bearer for French wrestling at the Paris Olympics. Introduced to wrestling at age 9, a youth Olympics medallist at 16, and U23 world champion when she was 19 and a senior worlds silver medallist in the same year, Larroque was destined for greatness.

But her career arc suffered a setback. An injury in the 2018 World Championship final meant she was away from the mat for almost a year. Once she recovered, Larroque looked like a shadow of her past self as she could not manage any podium finishes. And although she made it to Tokyo, she was eliminated after the first round itself.

Paris provides the 68kg wrestler a path to redemption. To finish among medals in front of her family and friends — and a short distance away from her club — would undoubtedly be an unparalleled high in Larroque’s career.