#wrestlebishkek

LIVE BLOG: Bishkek Ranking Series event, Day Two

Friday, June 2, 2023 - 04:18 By Eric Olanowski

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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (June 2) --- The second day of wrestling at the Bishkek Ranking Series event get underway at 10:30 am. Friday's action will feature the final three Greco-Roman weights--72kg, 77kg and 87kg, and the first four women's wrestling weights--57kg, 62kg, 68kg and 76kg.

Everything you need to know:
📍Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬
🗓️: June 1-4
🕙: Qualification = 10:30
🥇🥈🥉= 18:00
#️⃣: #WrestleBishkek
🖥️: http://uww.org 
📱: UWW App

Friday's final matches:
Greco-Roman
72kg: Mohammadreza GERAEI (IRI) vs.Ramaz ZOIDZE (GEO) 
77kg: Mohammadali Abdolhamid GERAEI (IRI) vs. Iuri LOMADZE (GEO) 
82kg: Alireza Azizkhoon MOHMADIPIANI (IRI) vs. Alperen BERBER (TUR) 

Women's Wrestling
57kg: Kexin HONG (CHN) vs. Alina HRUSHYNA AKOBIIA (UKR) 
62kg: Orkhon PUREVDORJ (MGL) vs. Ilona PROKOPEVNIUK (UKR) 
68kg: Delgermaa ENKHSAIKHAN (MGL) vs. Feng ZHOU (CHN) 
76kg: Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) vs. Yuanyuan HUANG (CHN) 

13:31: Talk about feeding off the crowd. Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) picked up her second come-from-behind win of the day, scoring four points in the final 20 seconds to defeat Qiandegenchagan QIANDEGENCHAGAN (CHN), 6-3. She reached the finals, where she'll meet Yuanyuan HUANG (CHN) for the 76kg title.

13:18: Geraei just made Basar's feet touch the ceiling with a perfectly timed duck under. I'm waiting for the video and will have it up shortly.

13:06: World bronze medalists Mohammadali Abdolhamid GERAEI (IRI) and Yunus Emre BASAR (TUR) are in a tight battle over on Mat A. Geraei just picked up two from a gut wrench, grabbing the 3-2 lead heading into the second period.

12:37: Two Olympic medalist are wrestling now. Reza Geraei is up on A and Meerim ZHUMANAZAROVA (KGZ) is up on Mat C.

12:35: Jia LONG (CHN) just put up 14 points in the second period against Bullen, erasing a nine-point first-period deficit. In one of the craziest turn of event I've ever seen, she went from being down 10-1 to winning 15-10.

12:29: Grace BULLEN (NOR) is in the midst of blowing a 10-1 lead. She's given up eight consecutive points in the second period and there's still over a minute to go.

12:12: In the battle of Mongolian world champs over on Mat C, Purevdorj picked up three counter-offensive go-behinds against Sukhee, picking up the 6-4 win. This was Purevdorj's second win over Sukhee after defeating her at the 2023 Mongolian National Championships. Although it's not official, with a 2-0 record against Sukhee, Purevdorj will likely be Mongolia's rep at the 2023 World Championships.

11:40: The Pan-American champions who made the trip to Bishkek are having a tough day. Elvira KAMALOGLU (TUR), who entered the competition with a 1-2 record on the season, just cruised to a 12-1 win over Luisa VALVERDE  (ECU). She'll wrestle reigning two-time European champion Alina HRUSHYNA AKOBIIA (UKR) next for a spot in the 57kg finals

11:21: Mongolia's pair of world champions Tserenchimed SUKHEE (MGL) and Orkhon PUREVDORJ (MGL) will wrestle in four matches on Mat C. This will likely determine the starting spot at 62kg on Mongolia's Belgrade world team.

11:12: The Olympic champ skates away with a 9-3 win over Abuladze and will meet  Adilkhan SATAYEV (KAZ) in the 72kg quarterfinals.

11:03: Things are getting crazy on Mat A. Otar ABULADZE (GEO) just pinned Olympic champ Mohammadreza Abdolhamid GERAEI (IRI) but the fall didn't stick.

After a back and forth exchange near the Georgian corner, Geraei ended up flat on his back, with Otar picking up the fall. But Geraei challenged that Abuladze's head and left head went out of bounds, which should have stopped all action. He was correct and we're back to action.

10:49: Continuing with the action on Mat A, world bronze medalist Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) has a slim 1-0 lead Gulmaral YERKEBAYEVA (KAZ) but is on the shot clock. Her coach just told her to start working on the head and get to her undertook on her right side.

10:45: Prokopevniuk and Godinez trade takedown in period two, but the Ukrainian pulls out the early upset of the morning, 8-3. She'll take on Lydia PEREZ TOURINO (ESP) in the 62kg quarterfinals.

10:41:  Ilona PROKOPEVNIUK (UKR) has built a solid 6-1 lead on Ana Paula GODINEZ GONZALEZ (CAN), scoring three takedowns on the reigning Pan-American champion. There's just under two minutes left in the opening round match 62kg. 

10:23: Welcome back to Bishkek, wrestling. Today, there will be three Olympic medalists in action: Olympic champion Mohammadreza Abdolhamid GERAEI (IRI), and Olympic bronze medal winners Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR) and Meerim ZHUMANAZAROVA (KGZ).

#WrestleZagreb

Zagreb Open Flashback: Iran, U.S. opened season with success

Monday, January 19, 2026 - 10:21 By Vinay Siwach

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ZAGREB, Croatia (January 18) -- United World Wrestling's 2026 season will kick off with the Ranking Series in Zagreb February 4. The recent memories of Zagreb may be the September World Championships but the 2025 season also kicked off with the Ranking Series in the Croatian capital.

Iran and the United States had strong performances in the first of the four stops of the Ranking Series, a theme which continued throughout the 2025 season as the U.S. dominated Freestyle while Iran dominated Greco-Roman.

Women's Wrestling participants were less in numbers but still saw U.S. and UWW wrestlers share gold medals.

Here's a trip down memory lane of the 2025 Zagreb Open Ranking Series before the 2026 season kicks off:

WATCH ZAGREB OPEN 2025 TOP BOUTS HERE

Freestyle

A young Iranian team snapped four gold medals in Zagreb with Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) winning gold at 61kg, Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) winning at 65kg, Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI) became champion at 92kg and Amirreza MASOUMI (IRI) winning the 125kg gold.

For the U.S., Spencer LEE (USA) kicked off the season with 57kg with gold, Zahid VALENCIA (USA) won at 86kg and Kyle SNYDER (USA) at 97kg. Both Valencia and Snyder went on to win gold at the World Championships later in the season.

Azerbaijan, Slovakia and France won one gold each, with Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE) winning at 70kg for Azerbaijan, Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) winning gold at 74kg, and Zelimkhan KHADJIEV (FRA) winning at 79kg for France.

Iran dominance began when Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) won gold at 61kg, beating the likes of Nuraddin NUVROZOV (AZE), Nashon GARRETT (USA), Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) and Ebrahim KHARI (IRI). Javan would later win a silver medal at the World Championships. At 65kg, Ebrahim held his own in a thrilling final against Joseph MCKENNA (USA) to grab the second gold for Iran.

Young superstars Firouzpour and Masoumi put up a show to win gold medals at 92kg and 125kg respectively.

Lee was making a returning to competition six months after winning the silver medal at the Paris Olympics. He won the Zagreb Open gold with rather ease. For the U.S., Valencia saw himself win gold at 86kg outscoring his opponents 35-4 in four bouts. In the final, Valencia defeated world bronze medalist Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0.

Snyder opened his season with a 33-1 scoring run in three bouts at 97kg in Zagreb. In the final, he easily defeated Abolfazl BABALOO (IRI).

Heybatov gave early warnings to the 70kg field by winning gold in Zagreb, a run which included wins over Austin GOMEZ (MEX), two back-to-back wins over Iranian wrestlers including a 12-1 one again Sina KHALILI (IRI) in the final. The two would wrestle again towards the end of the year at the U23 World Championships. Heybatov won that final with a 9-4 score.

Two veterans, Salkazanov and Khadjiev, were at their best in the opening Ranking Series tournament. Salkazanov blanked everyone, including winning 4-0 against David CARR (USA) in the final, to win 74kg gold.

Khadjiev had a tougher bat but managed to win the 79kg gold with a 5-3 win over Mahdi YOUSEFI (IRI) in the final. The French wrestler would later win silver at the European Championships.