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Record number attend India's Introduction to Referee Course

Wednesday, November 30, 2022 - 13:37 By United World Wrestling Press

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SONEPAT, India (November 30) -- The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) organized an Introduction to Referee course on November 18-20 in Sonepat. This was the largest-ever course with 96 participants (86 men and 10 women).

“The course was very useful for developing skills and knowledge of the Indian national referees. WFI organizes 25 domestic competitions in a year. After this course, we have enough national referees to conduct these competitions as this group will serve as referees at many of those events,” said Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, WFI President.

This course was led by Carlos GARCIA (ESP) and assisted by Ashok KUMAR (IND). Both are IS Referees and certified UWW Educators.

During the three-day course, the participants concentrated on several areas that are important to the development of referees. After an initial assessment, the main topics were focused on referee mechanics, positioning, referee team duties, and athlete safeguarding.

The morning sessions centered around the theory, mainly through videos or direct examples from their practical sessions. The afternoon sessions were dedicated to practicing on the mat by refereeing short matches. These practical sessions allowed participants to apply what they learned and improve their performance.

“I learned a lot from this course and even things that I did not know about including the latest rules and regulations of the competition. This course was very useful for me, and I really enjoyed this course," Shivaji, a referee, said.

“I would like to thank the Wrestling Federation of India for organizing the course and their hospitality. It is very motivating when you see so much interest and passion which may not be everything, but it gets you to your goals faster. The young Indian referees have a passion that could drive Formula 1 cars at maximum speed," Garcia said.

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UWW's 2024 Wrestlers of the Year: Petriashvili, Tosun, Kusaka

Monday, December 16, 2024 - 16:45 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 16) -- United World Wrestling has announced the wrestlers of the year in Freestyle, Women's Wrestling and Greco-Roman. UWW’s 2024 Wrestler of the Year award winners are Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO), Buse TOSUN (TUR) and Nao KUSAKA (JPN).

Freestyle: Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO)

The 30-year-old Georgian finished with a style-best 68,200 Ranking Series points through his finishes at the four point-based events of the year -- Olympic Games, European Championships, Croatian and Hungarian Ranking Series -- in which he collected a 13-4 record with 8 wins coming against top 20 ranked opponents.

Petriashvili’s 2024 season didn’t start well, as he finished in fifth place with a 3-2 record at the Croatian Ranking Series. This marked Petriashvili’s sixth consecutive full season in which he started on a losing note before regaining focus and peaking at the most opportune times.

In his next outing, Petriashvili scored three wins before reaching the European finals for the seventh time in his career. However, he fell short against career rival Taha AKGUL (TUR) for silver.

The three-time world champion then went to Hungary for the final tune-up before the Paris Olympics. While at the second Ranking Series event of the year, Petriashvili grabbed three wins, but not before falling to Yusup BATIRMURZAEV (KAZ) in the semifinals while nursing a left elbow injury.

Petriashvili headed to Paris hungry to improve his 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medal. The father of two did exactly that, picking up four victories including a 10-9 shock win over two-time reigning world champion Amir Hossein ZARE (IRI), becoming Georgia’s third-ever freestyle Olympic gold medalist.
 
Greco-Roman: Nao KUSAKA (JPN)

23-year-old Nao KUSAKA (JPN), finished with a Greco-Roman best 79,200 Ranking Series points after winning golds at the Olympics, Asian Championships, and Hungarian Ranking Series events while also winning a bronze at the Croatian Ranking Series event at the beginning of the season.

After falling in the semifinals of his first competition of the year, Kusaka rallied off 14 consecutive victories -- four of which came against former world champions Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR), Ibrahim GHANEM (FRA), Malkhas AMOYAN (ARM) and Akzhol MAKHMUDOV (KGZ) -- on his way to winning golds in Paris, Bishkek and Budapest.

Kusaka’s win in Paris at 77kg, alongside his fellow teammate Kenichiro FUMITA’s gold, ended Japan’s 40-year Greco-Roman Olympic gold-medal drought.

Women's Wrestling: Buse TOSUN (TUR)

Buse TOSUN (TUR) is UWW’s Women’s wrestler of the year after topping the rankings with a style best 60,200 points. She narrowly edged Sakura MOTOKI (JPN) by 200 points for the coveted award.

Tosun, the reigning world champion at 68kg, finished 2024 with an impressive 11-2 record. Of those 11 wins during the season, a staggering eight came against wrestlers in the top 15 of the world rankings.

She dropped her first match of the season to Feng ZHOU (CHN) but went on to win 11 of her remaining 12 bouts, falling only at the Paris Olympics to eventual champion Amit ELOR (USA), en route to winning an Olympic bronze which was just Turkiye's second-ever women’s wrestling Olympic medal.

United World Wrestling congratulates Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO), Nao KUSAKA (JPN), and Buse TOSUN (TUR) for their incredible achievements this year and for being named the 2024 Wrestlers of the Year.