#WrestlePontevedra

Russia Brings Freestyle Finalist Total to Seven

By Eric Olanowski

PONTEVEDRA, Spain (June 8) – Russia holds the team lead after the sixth day of freestyle competition and inserted three additional wrestlers into gold-medal matches -- bringing their overall finalist total to seven. 

Russia opened up the freestyle competition by winning 12 of 13 matches, went 11-3 on Saturday, and brought their freestyle win/loss total to 23-4. Their three Day 7 finalists who’ll wrestle for gold at 74kg, 92kg, 125kg, respectively, are Dmitrii KUPRIN, Aslanbek SOTIEV, Saipudin MAGOMEDOV. 

Of the three Russian finalists, Magomedov and Sotiev will have the toughest test in the finals.

Soltiev will wrestle Azerbaijan’s two-time age-level world bronze medalist Askhab HAMZATOV. 

Hamzatov, who had locked up his third European medal, will be wrestling in the junior finals for the second consecutive year. Last year, Hamzatov fell to Russia’s Azamat ZAKUEV in the 92kg finals and settled for a silver medal. 

Magomedov will take on Ukraine’s Yurii IDZINSKYI in the 125kg finals. This’ll be the third time that Idzinskyi has competed in the European finals, but the Ukrainian has fallen in each of his two previous attempts. Idzinskyi fell in the U23 European finals earlier this year, and also dropped last year’s junior European finals. 

The other finalist is Dmitrii Kuprin. He’ll wrestle Turkey’s Abdulvasi BALTA (TUR) in the 74kg finals. 

The Day 7 finals begin on Sunday at 18:00 and can be followed live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org.

RESULTS

61kg 
GOLD - Hrachya MARGARYAN (ARM) vs. Oleksandr YEVSIEIENKO (UKR)
SEMIFINAL - Hrachya MARGARYAN (ARM) df. Hamza ALACA (TUR), 5-2
SEMIFINAL - Oleksandr YEVSIEIENKO (UKR) df. Gamzatgadzhi KHALIDOV (HUN), 10-9 

74kg 
GOLD - Abdulvasi BALTA (TUR) vs. Dmitrii Alekseevitch KUPRIN (RUS)
SEMIFINAL - Abdulvasi BALTA (TUR) df. Valentin BORZIN (MDA), 8-3 
SEMIFINAL - Dmitrii KUPRIN (RUS) df. Goga MAMIAURI (GEO), 9-2

86kg 
GOLD - Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO) vs. Mher MARKOSYAN (ARM)
SEMIFINAL - Mher MARKOSYAN (ARM) df. Slavik NANIEV (RUS), 6-4
SEMIFINAL - Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO) df. Demid KARACHENKO (UKR), 11-3 

92kg 
GOLD - Askhab HAMZATOV (AZE) vs.  Aslanbek SOTIEV (RUS)
SEMIFINAL - Aslanbek SOTIEV (RUS) df. Aliaksei PARKHOMENKA (BLR), 10-4
SEMIFINAL - Askhab HAMZATOV (AZE) df. Matous VONDAL (CZE), 6-0 

125kg
GOLD - Saipudin MAGOMEDOV (RUS) vs. Yurii IDZINSKYI (UKR)
SEMIFINAL - Saipudin MAGOMEDOV (RUS) vs. Islam ABUEV (AZE), 5-0 
SEMIFINAL - Yurii IDZINSKYI (UKR) df. Mikita HORHUN (BLR), 11-0 

#UnitedWorldWrestling

Lalovic meets Saudi Olympic vice president Fahad bin Jalawi

By United World Wrestling Press

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (April 25) -- United World Wrestling President Nenad LALOVIC met with Vice President of the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee Fahad bin Jalawi Abdulaziz bin Musaed in Riyadh during his visit to Saudi Arabia.

Lalovic met with Fahad bin Jalawi at the Prince Faisal bin Fahad Olympic Complex in Riyadh. President of the Saudi Wrestling Federation Fahad Al-Faraj was also present during the meeting.

Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the Saudi Wrestling Federation discussed enhancing cooperation with UWW in wrestling as the Saudi federation aspires to establish a strong group of male and female players capable of participating in the Olympic events in the coming years.

Lalovic also visited the training camp organized by the Saudi wrestling team. The session saw the participation of 14 male and female wrestlers [4 U17, 4 U20, 4 U23 and 2 senior wrestlers]. The training was under the supervision of the Juan LUIS (CUB).

Saudi wrestling has made progress in recent times with Munthir JANDU (KSA) winning a silver medal in the 63kg weight class at the U20 Asian Championships last year.