#WrestleWarsaw

Live Blog: Poland Open Ranking Series, Day Five

By Eric Olanowski

Greco-Roman action begins at Poland Open with five weight classes on the mat in Warsaw on Saturday. Keep an eye for the 77kg weight category.

WATCH LIVE | MATCH ORDER

Saturday's Finals Matches (As they come in):
67kg: Mohamed ELSAYED (EGY) vs.  Murat FIRAT (TUR) 
77kg: Abuiazid MANTSIGOV (RUS) vs. Tamas LEVAI (HUN) 
82kg: Yaroslav FILCHAKOV (UKR) vs.Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB) 
130kg: Aliakbar Hossein YOUSOFIAHMADCHALI (IRI) vs. Amin Mohammadzaman MIRZAZADEH (IRI) 

12:32: Tamas LEVAI (HUN) upsets Vlasov's run and likely ends his quest at winning a third Olympic title. 

11:55: That's two matches up and two matches down for Vlasov. Through those matches, he's outscored his opponents 19-0. 

11:46: World champion Mantsigov is making his way to Mat A for his tournament debut against Yunus Emre BASAR (TUR). The winner of this match will square off against the winner of  Tamas LEVAI (HUN) and Sakke Petteri PUROLAINEN (FIN). 

11:30: That's a wrap for qualification-round matches. We're moving into the quarterfinals. We'll have four matches on each mat then roll right into the semifinals. 

11:20: Vlasov has made his way to Mat A for his opening round matchup against Oliver Marco KRUEGER (DEN).

11:02: Two-time Olympic champion Roman VLASOV (RUS) is fighting for the right to represent Russia at the Olympic Games at 77kg. He'll have outplace '19 world champion Abuiazid MANTSIGOV (RUS) today, then beat '18 world Aleksander CHERKHIRKIN (RUS) in a later-scheduled wrestle-off for the spot.

Vlasov will take the mat in two matches on Mat A.

11:00: We're about two minutes from going live in Poland. It looks like we'll have between 12-14 matches per mat during this morning's session. We'll start things off this morning with two-time world champion and London Olympic silver medalist Heiki NABI (EST) on Mat A. 

More than 1000 Wrestlers in Saudi Arabia's Biggest Competition

By United World Wrestling Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (February 24) -- Saudi Arabia organized its largest wrestling competition to date with more than 1000 wrestlers participating in the 10-day event.

The Saudi Wrestling Federation organized the event from February 8 to 17 with wrestling in Freestyle, Greco-Roman and Women's Wrestling. The age groups included U12, U17, U23 and senior level.

The tournament was also open to government and private clubs which surged the number of wrestlers participating. The clubs included wrestlers from different nationalities. According to the Saudi federation, 1,173 wrestlers participated with 1,034 male and 139 female wrestlers.

Over the 10 days, 1,491 matches were conducted using the official UWW Arena competition management system to ensure professional organization, transparency, and technical accuracy.

"The number of registered wrestlers in the Kingdom has doubled in recent years," Sherif HALAWA, UWW Certified Educator & Head of Sports Performance of the Saudi Wrestling Federation, said. "This development has already produced historic achievements, including Saudi Arabia’s first-ever Asian silver medal at the U20 Asian Championships."

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia, which termed the event as National Championships, has made steady success recently. It has also managed to grow wrestling at grassroots, women’s participation, referee development, and high-performance pathways.

"The technical level of Saudi wrestlers has improved significantly in recent years," Yusup ABDULSALAMOV, Senior Manager of High Performance at the Saudi Olympic Training Center, said. "There are promising talents capable of achieving strong international results in the near future. Saudi wrestling is clearly on the right path."