#WrestlePontevedra

Russia Brings Freestyle Finalist Total to Seven

Saturday, June 8, 2019 - 17:31 By Eric Olanowski

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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 

#CanadaWrestling

Former world champion Di Stasio of Canada retires

Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 17:45 By United World Wrestling Press

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OTTAWA, Canada (March 13) -- After nearly 15 years of representing Canada, Justina DI STASIO (CAN) has decided to retire.

During her career, Di Stasio built an impressive resume that will go down as one of the all-time greats in Canadian wrestling history. The 32-year-old represented Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Di Stasio won gold medal at the World Championship in 2018, a Pan-American Games gold medal in 2019 and Commonwealth Games gold in 2022. In addition, she is a multiple-time Pan-Am Championships gold medalist.

While there have been many memorable moments, a few stood out to Di Stasio, including her start with the national team, her win at the 2018 worlds, being coached on the national team by two-time Olympic medalist Tonya VERBEEK (CAN), and making her first Olympics in 2024.

“Winning worlds was a special moment, especially because I could hear my parents cheering from the stands," Di Stasio said. "It reminded me of my tournaments as a kid. It also helped me frame everything in my life better. I realized it is about the journey and not the destination. It was amazing to feel the way I did on that one day, but it was only one day. I had worked so hard in the lead up, but I realized I had to enjoy those days too. I still wanted to be the best in the world and I never didn’t train like it, but from that point, I made sure to enjoy my wrestling every day.”

That love for the sport kept Di Stasio going despite setbacks that stalled her dream of competing at the Olympics. After failing to qualify for the Rio and Tokyo Games, Di Stasio qualified for Paris 2024, eventually finishing 12th.

“Making it to the Olympics came with lots of pressure, but good pressure. I had won everything else and trained every day thinking I could be an Olympic champion. Even though it was a heart-breaking result, I know I couldn’t have worked harder and that helped me accept the result. I would have loved to make it there when I was younger, but I think I needed to be more mature to handle the result.”

Read full news on Wrestling Canada Lutte website.