Refugee Day

With Support of Community, Al Obaidi is Painting a Bright Future

By United World Wrestling Press

INZING, Austria (June 20) -- Aker Al Obaidi had been working as a painter for two years before Benedikt "Mo" Ernst finally convinced the young Iraqi refugee to move to the small town of Inzing, Austria.

The small town, population 4000, intimidated the former Baghdad resident. He'd always known bigger cities, and found comfort in wrestling. 

To help, Coach "Mo" furnished an apartment for Al Obaidi and set up the young Greco-Roman grappler with a series of training opportunities. After a few weeks of acclimating to the new city, Al Obaidi invited Mo over for dinner and showed him the job he'd done painting the apartment.

It was not what Coach was expecting. Greeting him in the living room was the large five-ring logo of the Olympic Games.

"I painted the Rings on this wall because I want to see them every day," said Al Obaidi. "This is my motivation to work as hard as I can and reach my goal!“

Shortly after painting the Rings on his wall AL Obaidi and Coach Mo received word from the IOC that they had chosen Al Obaidi for the IOC Refugee Athletic Scholarship and would be supporting his Olympic journey.

Members of the Austrian national team who live in Inzing have helped provide Al Obaidi the training he needs to prepare for the Olympic Games, as he also attends every camp and tournament of the Austrian wrestling federation.

Al Obaidi's training during COVID has been difficult since he's not allowed to train in the training hall. Instead his coach has organized a special program for him to maintain his shape.

"He is one of the motivated guys I have," said Mo. "He has developed his strength and endurance very well during this hard time."

Like most of the wrestling world Al Obaidi isn't quite sure what will happen with COVID-19, but for now he plans to start wrestling training once cleared by the Austrian government - maybe as early as July.

The plans then include training camps and possibly trips to the U23 Europeans in Bucharest at the beginning of October and the U23 World Championship in Finland. If he's very lucky with travel arrangements, maybe some international training camps in Hungary, Germany and Ukraine between tournaments.

"He works hard and I know if Aker qualifies for the Olympics in Tokyo 2021," said Mo. "His dream will come true."

#WrestleBudapest

#WrestleBudapest 4th Ranking Series freestyle entries

By Eric Olanowski & Vinay Siwach

BUDAPEST, Hungary (June 22) -- When the fourth Ranking Series in Budapest, Hungary begins on July 13, the World Championships will be just two months away. Most countries would have finalized their world squads and would like to give them a shot at the international competition before the big showdown in Belgrade in September.

The freestyle entry list of the Budapest Ranking Series -- Polyák Imre & Varga János Memorial -- confirms the interest of countries giving international experience to their wrestlers.

Iran will send its top wrestlers -- notably world silver medalist Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI)
and Ali SAVADKOUHI (IRI) at 79kg -- perhaps to finalize which one of the two wrestlers in Belgrade.

It has also entered Amirmohammad YAZDANI (IRI) at 70kg alongwith Ahmad MOHAMMADNEZHADJAVAN (IRI) and Milad VALIZADEH (IRI) at 57kg and Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI) and Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI) at 92kg.

Georgia, too, has entered wrestlers in all 10 weight classes while Azerbaijan has two wrestlers -- Abubakr ABAKAROV (AZE) at 86kg and Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE) at 97kg.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia are not behind and have entered all 10 weight classes.

The Ranking Series offers prize money to medal winners and allows two-kilogram weight tolerance in each weight category.

All the action from the fourth and final Ranking Series, which will begin with freestyle, will be live on uww.org and UWW App. 

Full Entries:
Greco-Roman entries
Women's wrestling entries

57kg
Wanhao ZOU (CHN)
Gamal MOHAMED (EGY)
Valentin DAMOUR (FRA)
Beka BUJIASHVILI (GEO)
Roberti DINGASHVILI (GEO)
Horst LEHR (GER)
Niklas STECHELE (GER)
Milad VALIZADEH (IRI)
Ahmad MOHAMMADNEZHADJAVAN (IRI)
Abzal OKENOV (KAZ)
Mukhamed BALGABAY (KAZ)
Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ)
Almaz SMANBEKOV (KGZ)
Sunggwon KIM (KOR)
Zanabazar ZANDANBUD (MGL)
Suraj SINGH (NZL)
Gayan EKANAYAKA MUDIYANSELAGE (SRI)
Kamil KERYMOV (UKR)
Zane RICHARDS (USA)

61kg
Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB)
Arman ELOYAN (FRA)
Shota PHARTENADZE (GEO)
Gamzatgadzsi HALIDOV (HUN)
Daniel POPOV (ISR)
Ossimzhan DASTANBEK (KAZ)
Assylzhan YESSENGELDI (KAZ)
Vladimir KUDRIN (KAZ)
Ulukbek ZHOLDOSHBEKOV (KGZ)
Narankhuu NARMANDAKH (MGL)
Yaroslav HURSKYY (UKR)
Andrii DZHELEP (UKR)
Vitali ARUJAU (USA)

65kg
Islam DUDAEV (ALB)
Agustin DESTRIBATS (ARG)
Lachlan MCNEIL (CAN)
Shaohua YUAN (CHN)
Ilman MUKHTAROV (FRA)
Marwane Ahmed YEZZA (FRA)
Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA)
Edemi BOLKVADZE (GEO)
Andre CLARKE (GER)
Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV (HUN)
SUJEET (IND)
Joshua FINESILVER (ISR)
Sanzhar MUKHTAR (KAZ)
Akbar KURBANOV (KAZ)
Adlan ASKAROV (KAZ)
Ikromzhon KHADZHIMURODOV (KGZ)
Alibek OSMONOV (KGZ)
Changsu KIM (KOR)
Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL)
Divoshan CHARLES FERNANDO (SRI)
Emrah ORMANOGLU (TUR)
Nicholas LEE (USA)
 
70kg
Daniel COLES (CAN)
Amr Reda HUSSEN (EGY)
Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO)
Daniel ANTAL (HUN)
Mohammad BAKHSHISHIRKOLAEI (IRI)
Amirmohammad YAZDANI (IRI)
Yegor ANCHUGIN (KAZ)
Syrbaz TALGAT (KAZ)
Sanzhar DOSZHANOV (KAZ)
Orozobek TOKTOMAMBETOV (KGZ)
Ernazar AKMATALIEV (KGZ)
Anil KARUNA PELI GEDARA (SRI)
Ivan KUSYAK (UKR)
Ihor NYKYFORUK (UKR)
Joseph MC KENNA (USA)
 
74kg
Cesar BORDEAUX (BRA)
Adam THOMSON (CAN)
Shengsong XIA (CHN)
Otari BAGAURI (GEO)
Tim MUELLER (GER)
Murad KURAMAGOMEDOV (HUN)
Mitchell FINESILVER (ISR)
Nurlan BEKZHANOV (KAZ)
Nurkozha KAIPANOV (KAZ)
Darkhan YESSENGALI (KAZ)
Byungmin GONG (KOR)
Suldkhuu OLONBAYAR (MGL)
Cole HAWKINS (NZL)
Krisztian BIRO (ROU)
Udayantha FERNANDO (SRI)
Tymur HUDYMA (UKR)
Vadym KURYLENKO (UKR)
Julian RAMIREZ (USA)

79kg
Francisco de Deus KADIMA (ANG)
Simon MARCHL (AUT)
Saifedine ALEKMA (FRA)
Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO)
Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO)
Botond LUKACS (HUN)
Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI)
Ali SAVADKOUHI (IRI)
Daniyar KAISANOV (KAZ)
Nurdaulet KUANYSHBAY (KAZ)
Bolat SAKAYEV (KAZ)
Zaur EFENDIEV (SRB)
Muhammet AKDENIZ (TUR)
Isa DEMIR (TUR)
Ramazan SARI (TUR)
Oleksii DOMANYTSKYI (UKR)
Chandler MARSTELLER (USA)

86kg
Benjamin GREIL (AUT)
Abubakr ABAKAROV (AZE)
Bruno NICOLETTI (BRA)
Xiao SUN (CHN)
Akhmed AIBUEV (FRA)
Rakhim MAGAMADOV (FRA)
Ruslan VALIEV (FRA)
Tariel GAPHRINDASHVILI (GEO)
Lars SCHAEFLE (GER)
Dauren KURUGLIEV (GRE)
Csaba VIDA (HUN)
Patrik PUESPOEKI (HUN)
Uri KALASHNIKOV (ISR)
Yeskali DAULETKAZY (KAZ)
Nurzhan ISSAGALIYEV (KAZ)
Nurtilek KARYPBAEV (KGZ)
Gwanuk KIM (KOR)
Sebastian JEZIERZANSKI (POL)
Andrei FRANT (ROU)
Myles AMINE (SMR)
Osman GOCEN (TUR)
Fatih ERDIN (TUR)
Vasyl MYKHAILOV (UKR)
Vladyslav PRUS (UKR)
Maximus HALE (USA)
 
92kg
Adlan VISKHANOV (FRA)
Miriani MAISURADZE (GEO)
Balazs Attila JUHASZ (HUN)
Amirhossein FIROUZPOUR (IRI)
Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI)
Matthew FINESILVER (ISR)
Akezhan AITBEKOV (KAZ)
Rizabek AITMUKHAN (KAZ)
Denys SAHALIUK (UKR)
Zahid VALENCIA (USA)
 
97kg
Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE)
Nishan Preet RANDHAWA (CAN)
ALATANGALIDA (CHN)
Awusayiman HABILA (CHN)
Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO)
Erik THIELE (GER)
Vladislav BAITSAEV (HUN)
Richard VEGH (HUN)
Benjamin HONIS (ITA)
Nursultan AZOV (KAZ)
Alisher YERGALI (KAZ)
Bekzat URKIMBAY (KAZ)
Kanybek ABDULKHAIROV (KGZ)
Juhwan SEO (KOR)
Sung Yup RYU (KOR)
Mahamed ZAKARIIEV (UKR)
Murazi MCHEDLIDZE (UKR)
David MCHEDLIDZE (UKR)
Kyle SNYDER (USA)

125kg
Catriel MURIEL (ARG)
Johannes LUDESCHER (AUT)
Zhiwei DENG (CHN)
Diaaeldin ABDELMOTTALEB (EGY)
Youssif HEMIDA (EGY)
Solomon MANASHVILI (GEO)
Gennadij CUDINOVIC (GER)
Daniel LIGETI (HUN)
Abraham CONYEDO RUANO (ITA)
Omar EYUBOV (KAZ)
Yusup BATIRMURZAEV (KAZ)
Yeihyun JUNG (KOR)
Yurii IDZINSKYI (UKR)
Mason PARRIS (USA)