#WrestleSofia

LIVE BLOG: World Olympic Qualifiers, Day 1

By United World Wrestling Press

Sofia is set for the World Olympic Qualifiers -- the final chance for wrestlers to win a quota for the Tokyo Olympics. 12 tickets will be awarded on Thursday in freestyle wrestling.

WATCH LIVE | MATCH ORDER

Semifinal matches (stat time = 19:00)

57kg
SEMIFINAL - Yuki TAKAHASHI (JPN) vs. Reineri ANDREU ORTEGA (CUB)
SEMIFINAL - Giorgi EDISHERASHVILI (AZE)  vs. Bekhbayar ERDENEBAT (MGL) 

65kg
SEMIFINAL - Georgios PILIDIS (GRE) vs. David HABAT (SLO)
SEMIFINAL -  Jordan Michael OLIVER (USA) vs. Magomedmurad GADZHIEV (POL) 

74kg
SEMIFINAL - Vasyl MYKHAILOV (UKR) vs. Mitchell Louis FINESILVER (ISR) 
SEMIFINAL - Taimuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) vs.  Magomedkhabib KADIMAGOMEDOV (BLR)

86kg 
SEMIFINAL - Abubakr ABAKAROV (AZE) vs. Boris MAKOEV (SVK) 
SEMIFINAL - Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL) vs. Sohsuke TAKATANI (JPN) 

97kg 
SEMIFINAL - Abraham de Jesus CONYEDO RUANO (ITA) vs. Ahmed Sultanovich BATAEV (BUL) 
SEMIFINAL -  Valerii ANDRIITSEV (UKR) vs. Albert SARITOV (ROU) 

125kg
SEMIFINAL - Jose Daniel DIAZ ROBERTTI (VEN) vs. Sumit SUMIT (IND) 
SEMIFINAL - Sergei KOZYREV (RUS) vs. Daniel LIGETI (HUN) 

15:05: There's the comeback of the competition thus far.  Ilman MUKHTAROV (FRA) trailed European silver medalist Selahattin KILICSALLAYAN (TUR) by eight points but scored nine unanswered points and moved into the semifinals with a 9-8 victory.

14:53: What a second period! After trailing 3-0, Demirtas strung together six points in the second period and defeated world champion Cabalov, 6-3. 

14:35: We'll roll right into the quarterfinal matches -- starting with Yuki TAKAHASHI (JPN) and Vladimir EGOROV (MKD). 

13:47: Abubakr ABAKAROV (AZE) continues to roll. He wins his second match of the day with a 12-5 win over Sandro AMINASHVILI (GEO).

13: 37: Sergei KOZYREV (RUS), the last Russian freestyle looking for an Olympic berth, gave up the first takedown against Georgi IVANOV (BUL) but scored ten consecutive points and won the match, 12-2. He'll wrestle Robert BARAN (POL) in the 125kg quarterfinals.

13:11: Olympic bronze medalist Albert SARITOV (ROU) is on his way to Mat C to take on Radoslaw BARAN (POL). 

13:00: Yuki TAKAHASHI (JPN) cruised to the quarterfinals with a 10-0 shutout win over Razvan KOVACS (ROU). The two-time world medalist will square off against Vladimir EGOROV (MKD) for a spot in tonight's semifinals.

12:47: World champion Hetik CABOLOV (SRB) kick-started his day with an 11-0 throttling of Colombia's Nestor TAFUR. He'll take on Olympic bronze medalist Soner DEMIRTAS (TUR)  ?? next!

12:23: Georgios PILIDIS (GRE) trailed George RAMM (GBR), 4-0, but went on a tear and scored 14 unanswered points. He moved into the 65kg 1/8 final against Wber CUERO MUNOZ (COL).

12:18: World champion Beka LOMTADZE (GEO), who is replacing Olympic champion Vlad KHINCHEGASHVILI (GEO) at 65kg, hangs on to beat Dillon WILLIAMS (CAN), 6-4. 

12:11: European champ T. SALKAZANOV (SVK) looked sharp in his opening-round match against Marc DIETSCHE (SWI). He scored eight consecutive points against and moved into the 1/8 finals with a 12-2 win.

Salkazanov will meet Zurab KAPRAEV (ROU) for a spot in the #WrestleSofia 74kg quarterfinals.

12:03: World champion Hetik CABOLOV (SRB) opens up his day with a 11-0 throttling of Nestor TAFUR (COL).

11:55: Upcoming wrestlers-to-match on Mat B:
Bout 62: ??Yuki TAKAHASHI
Bout 63: European ?Giorgi EDISHERASHVILI ??
Bout 64: ???Bekhbayar ERDENEBAT ??

11:50: European champion Magomedkhabib KADIMAGOMEDOV (BLR) is coming up in three matches on Mat C. He'll take on Arsalan BUDAZHAPOV (KGZ).

11:49:  Sandro AMINASHVILI (GEO) survives to move into the 1/8 finals. He led Akhmed Adamovitch MAGAMAEV (BUL), 6-1, but surrendered four unanswered points and hung on to win, 6-5. He'll wrestle Abubakr ABAKAROV (AZE) next round.

11:44: Here we go! European champion Salkazanov is making his way to Mat A. 

11:35: We apologize for the technical difficulties, but we're back to action on Mat A. After what felt like an hour break, Ayoub BARRAJ (TUN) comes away with the win over Malik AMIN (SMR). Barraj will take on the winner of Vasyl MYKHAILOV (UKR) and Byambadorj BAT ERDENE (MGL).

10:43: World bronze medalist Taimuraz FRIEV NASKIDAEVA (ESP) is wrestling Saifedine ALEKMA (FRA) over on Mat C.

10:29: Mat A has a world champion, a world silver medalist and the reigning European champion upcoming in the next ten matches. 

10:22: Reigning European champion Taimuraz SALKAZANOV ?? is coming up in seven matches on Mat A. The last time he took the mat, he scored improbable come-from-behind-wins against a two-time world champion, a world silver medalist and a U23 world champion. His opponent will be Marc DIETSCHE ??.

10:12: Giorgi EDISHERASHVILI (AZE) wins his opening-round matchup against Otari GOGAVA (GEO). The Georgian injury defaulted after trailing 4-0 with what appeared to be a lower body injury.

10:00: Welcome to Sofia! We are ready with freestyle action starting now. 57kg, 65kg, 74kg, 86kg, 97kg and 125kg will get two new Olympians by the end of the day.

Four seeds, no finals: UWW approves new format for 2024 Olympic qualifiers

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (November 13) — United World Wrestling has approved a new format and seeds for the continental and world qualifiers for the Paris Olympics next year.

All five Paris Olympic Qualifiers next year will have four seeds in each of the weight classes and no gold-medal bouts.

The qualification cycle next year begins with the Pan-American Qualifiers in Acapulco, Mexico from February 28 to March 1. It will be followed by the African & Oceania Qualifiers in Alexandria, Egypt from March 22-24, European Qualifiers in Baku, Azerbaijan from April 4-7 and the Asian Qualifiers from April 19-21 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The World Olympic Qualifier will be held in Istanbul, Turkiye from May 9-12.
 
For the four Continental Qualifiers, the semifinal bouts will serve as the Paris Olympic qualification bouts. No repechage, bronze and gold-medal bouts will be held during these continental events. The finalists of each of the six Olympic weights will earn a spot for the Paris Games and no other quotas will be awarded at these competitions. The morning session will see bouts till the quarterfinals followed by a break and semifinals in the evening. Winners of these semifinals will earn their country a spot for the Paris Games.

Also Read: Paris 2024 Qualified Countries in Freestyle

For the World Qualifier, the semifinal bouts will serve as the Paris Olympic qualification bouts and the winners of these semifinals will earn a quota for the Olympic Games. The two winners of the bronze-medal bouts will compete for the third quota of each weight category. No gold-medal match will be held during this competition.

It will be held in a two-day format with the repechage scheduled on the second day. All competing wrestlers on day two will have to go through weigh-ins and wrestle in repechage to make it to the bronze-medal bout. The bronze medalists will then wrestle-off to win a Paris Olympic ticket.

Also Read: Nations Qualified for Paris 2024 in Greco-Roman

The UWW Bureau arrived at the decision keeping in mind the well being of the wrestlers and have a high level of competition at the Olympic qualifiers and the Paris Olympics next year.

144 wrestlers will look to qualify their countries for the Paris Olympics 2024 at the Pan-Am, African & Oceania, European and Asian Olympic Qualifiers while 54 more will earn the spot at the World Olympic Qualifier in Istanbul, Turkiye.

Also Read: Countries Qualified for Paris Olympics in Women’s Wrestling

The first qualification for the 2024 Olympics was achieved at the World Championships in September in Belgrade with 90 wrestlers receiving the quotas for the Games.

All the action from the Olympic Qualifiers will be live on UWW+. For more details of events, browse our events page.