#WrestleIstanbul

WATCH: 10 Greco-Roman Finals from #WrestleIstanbul

By United World Wrestling Press

ISTANBUL, Turkey (March 3) -- The Yasar Dogu, Vehbi Emre & Hamit Kaplan Ranking Series event was held in Istanbul, Turkey last week as the UWW calendar kicked off in style.

The tournament witnessed a high number of participants in all three styles. It began with Greco-Roman and 10 champions were crowned in Istanbul.

GOLD: GR 55kg - Adem UZUN (TUR) vs Amangali BEKBOLATOV (KAZ)

 

GOLD: GR 60kg - Yernar FIDAKHMETOV (KAZ) vs Ekrem OZTURK (TUR)

 

GOLD: GR 63kg - Victor CIOBANU (MDA) vs Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)

 

GOLD: 67kg - Morten THORESEN (NOR) vs Mahmud BAKHSHILLOEV (UZB) 

 

GOLD: 72kg - Kristupas SLEIVA (LTU) vs Selcuk CAN (TUR) 

 

GOLD: 77kg - Yunus BASAR (TUR) vs Sanan SULEYMANOV (AZE)

 

GOLD: 82kg - Burhan AKBUDAK (TUR) vs Mihail BRADU (MDA)

 

GOLD: 87kg - Zurabi DATUNASHVILI (SRB) vs Islam ABBASOV (AZE)

 

GOLD: 97kg - Rustam ASSAKALOV (UZB) vs Arvi SAVOLAINEN (FIN)

 

GOLD: 130kg - Osman YILDIRIM (TUR) vs Beka KANDELAKI (AZE)

 

#WrestleZagreb

WATCH: Chasing 97kg gold

By United World Wrestling Press

ZAGREB, Croatia (November 3) -- The 97kg weight class at the World Championships in Zagreb saw all four Paris Olympic medalists entered with Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN), defending world champion, as the favorite to win the gold medal in Zagreb.

Apart from Tazhudinov, the field included silver medalist from Paris and European champion Givi MATCHARASHVILI (GEO), Paris bronze medalists Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (AZE) and Amirali AZARPIRA (IRI), world and Olympic champion Kyle SNYDER (USA), Asian champion Arash YOSHIDA (JPN) and multiple elite wrestlers.

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO DOCUMENTERY HERE

Magomedov and Matcharashvili bowed out early the semifinals pairs were -- Tazhudinov vs Azarpira and Snyder vs Yoshida.

Azarpira knocked off Tazhudinov with a thrilling win in the semifinals and Snyder used his experience to beat Yoshida to enter the final against Azarpira who had defeated him in Paris in the bronze-medal bout.

Snyder and Azapira squared off in the final with the latter taking early lead but the Snyder, the machine he is, came back and defeated the Iranian 4-2, winning his fourth gold medal at the World Championships.

Tazhudinov and Yoshida went on to win the bronze medals on offer, finishing the podium in one of the premium weight classes in the world.