#WrestleCoralville

Ukraine bringing loaded WW team to World Cup

By Gary Abbott

CORALVILLE, Iowa (November 18) --- The lineup for Ukraine’s Women’s Wrestling World Cup team has been released.

The Women’s Wrestling World Cup will be held at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, Dec. 10-11. It is the first time that freestyle and women’s wrestling will be held together side-by-side at the World Cup.

The World Cup is the annual international dual meet championships, conducted by United World Wrestling. The top five teams in men’s freestyle and the top five teams in women’s wrestling from the 2022 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in September have confirmed their participation. There is also an All World Team in each discipline, featuring the top available athlete from the World Championships in each weight class that were not from a nation which qualified for the World Cup.

The Ukraine Women’s World Cup team is talented, as nine of the 10 entries have won at least one world medal, either on the Senior level or age-group level, or both.

The team is led by 2014 world champion Yulia TKACH OSTAPCHUK, who has also won three other world medals, a 2017 world silver medal and world bronze medals in 2015 and 2018. She has also won world titles at the University and U20 age levels.

Other senior world medalists on the roster include two-time world medalist Oleksandra KHOMENETS (55kg), a 2022 world silver medalist and a 2021 world bronze medalist. Also competing are Oksana LIVACH (50kg), a 2018 world bronze medalist, Alina HRUSHYNA AKOBIIA (57kg), a 2022 world bronze medalist and Ilona PROKOPEVNIUK (62kg), a 2022 world bronze medalist. All four of these stars have also won age-group world medals, with Livach a 2013 U17 World champion.

Age-group World medalists on the team include Tetiana SOVA RIZHKO (65kg), Alla BELINSKA (68kg), Anastasiya ALPYEVA (72kg) and Anastasiia OSNIACH SHUSTOVA (76kg). Alpyeyeva was a 2021 U23 world champion and Onsiak Shustova was a 2013 U17 world champion.

Ukraine, which placed fifth at the 2022 World Championships in women’s freestyle, will be joined in the World Cup by World champion Japan, second place United States, third place China and fourth place Mongolia, in addition to the All-World Team.         

Ukraine’s women’s team will spend an extended time in the United States, training with Team USA and others prior to and after the World Cup. The Ukrainian women will also compete in the Beat the Streets Los Angeles International Wrestling event in San Marino, Calif. on December 18, where it will take on a U.S. women’s all-star team.

The rosters of the World Cup teams for the other nations will be announced over the next week by USA Wrestling.

Ticket packages for the 2022 Men’s and Women’s Freestyle World Cup are currently on sale. The seating capacity for Xtream Arena for the World Cup will be approximately 5,300. Ticket packages include a Gold package for $275, Silver package for $200 and All-Session tickets for $90.

A special Presentation of Teams and Team USA Meet & Greet will also be held on Friday, December 9 at 6:45 pm. It is free and open to the public.

Men’s and Women’s Wrestling World Cup tickets -> https://worldcupiowacity.com/tickets/

Ukraine Women’s Freestyle World Cup team
50 kg – Oksana LIVACH
53 kg – Lilija MALANCHUK
55 kg – Oleksandra KHOMENETS
57 kg – Alina HRUSHYNA AKOBIIA
59 kg – Yuliia TKACH OSTAPCHUK
62 kg – Ilona PROKOPEVNIUK
65 kg – Tetiana SOVA RIZHKO
68 kg – Alla BELINSKA
72 kg – Anastasiya ALPYEVA
76 kg – Anastasiia OSNIACH SHUSTOVA   

#RankingSeries

UWW confirms Ranking Series, World Championships hosts for 2025

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (September 25) -- United World Wrestling has announced the World Championships and Ranking Series schedule for 2025.

UWW had earlier announced that the Senior World Championships will be held in Zagreb, Croatia from September 13-21. Here are the dates for the age-group World Championships.

U17 World Championships - Athens, Greece (July 28-3)
U20 World Championships - Bulgaria, Sofia (August 18-24)
U23 World Championships - Novi Sad, Serbia (October 20-26)
Veterans World Championships - Budapest, Hungary (October 7-12)

The calendar for the four Ranking Series tournaments for 2025 was also stamped by the Bureau which decided that the same cities will host the Ranking Series till 2027 in an attempt to further simplify the calendar.

Here are the four stops of the Ranking Series for seasons 2025:

1st Ranking Series - Zagreb, Croatia (February 5-9)
2nd Ranking Series - Tirana, Albania (February 26-March 2)
3rd Ranking Series - Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (May 29-June 1)
4th Ranking Series - Budapest, Hungary (July 17-20)

In the Olympic year 2028, only two Ranking Series will be held. The two hosts will be Zagreb, Croatia and Budapest, Hungary.

The host for the Asian Championships was also approved with Amman, Jordan confirmed to host the tournament from March 25 to 30.

The U17, U20 and Senior African Championships was already allotted to Casablanca, Morocco. However, the dates of the tournament have been changed to April 29 to May 4. The Senior Pan-Am Championships will now be held from May 6 to 9.

For a detailed 2025 calendar, visit uww.org/events.