Weekly FIVE!

Weekly FIVE! December 10, 2018

Monday, December 10, 2018 - 16:28 By Eric Olanowski

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Reviewing Russia's Ivan Yarygin qualification process. Also reviewing results from the Alans and Haparanda Cup.  

1. Dzambolat Tedeev Clarifies 2019 Ivan Yarygin Qualification Process
Dzambolat Tedeev, the head freestyle wrestling coach for the Russian Federation, clarified the qualification process for January’s Ivan Yarygin, which takes place in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Only three Russian wrestlers will qualify for the "Toughest Tournament in the World." Each of the 2018 world team members, along with the Alans and Mindiashvili winners will each punch their ticket to the Ivan Yarygin. 

In an interview with WRESTRUS.RU’s correspondent, Tigran Avanian, Tedeev said, “The first members of the Russian national team, mainly those who wrestled in Budapest, can still compete in the Alans. They already have an admission to Yarygin, but only in the weight in which they wrestled in Budapest.” Meaning the below world team members have qualified at the following weights.

57kg - Zaur UGUEV
61kg - Gadzhimurad RASHIDOV 
65kg - Akhmed CHAKAEV 
70kg - Magomedrasul GAZIMAGOMEDOV 
74kg - Zaurbek SIDAKOV 
79kg - Ahmed GADZHIMAGOMEDOV 
86kg - Dauren KURUGLIEV
92kg-  Batyrbek TSAKULOV
97kg - Abdulrashid SADULAEV 
125kg -  Anzor HIZRIEV

In order to provide further clarification, coach Tedeev  continued by saying, “If an athlete decides to change his weight category, he needs to establish himself in the new weight, which means he’ll have to win either the Alans or the Mindiashvili tournament, and only then he will be able to wrestle in Krasnoyarsk."


70kg Alans champion, David BAEV (RUS) Photo by Marion Stein. 

2. Vladikavkaz Hosts Yarygin Qualification Tournament, the Alans 
Loads of fans showed up to the sold-out Sports Center Arena in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia-Alania, Russia, for one of the country’s most important tournaments, the Alans. As mentioned above, the Alans served as a qualification for the January’s Ivan Yarygin in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. 

Arguably, the most impressive gold medal winner was the 70kg champion, David BAEV (RUS). Baev, the two-time age-level world champion, and 2018 U23 world runner-up knocked off back-to-back- world medalists on his run to the top of the podium. In the semifinals, Baev defeated two-time world medalist, James GREEN (USA), 8-6. He followed that up with a 5-3 finals win over 2016 world champion, Magomed KURBANALIEV (RUS). 

Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the United State each had wrestlers medal, but it was the Russian Federation who won nine of ten possible gold medals. The lone non-Russian champion was reigning two-time world champion, Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) who won the 125kg gold medal over Iran's Jaber SADEGHZADEH. 

RESULTS 
57kg
GOLD - Abasgadzhi MAGOMEDOV (RUS)
SILVER - Khuresh Ool DONDUK OOL (RUS) 
BRONZE - Ramiz AMZATOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Ibragim ABDURAKHMANOV (RUS) 

61kg 
GOLD - Ramazan FERZALIEV (RUS) 
SILVER - Beka LOMTADZE (GEO) 
BRONZE - Iulian GERGENOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Aleksandr BOGOMOEV (RUS) 

65kg 
GOLD - Muslim SAIDULAEV (RUS)
SILVER - Kurban SHIRAEV (RUS)
BRONZE – Nachyn KUULAR (RUS)
BRONZE – Alan GOGAEV (RUS)

70kg 
GOLD - David BAEV (RUS) 
SILVER - Magomed KURBANALIEV (RUS)
BRONZE - James Malcolm GREEN (USA) 
BRONZE - Razambek ZHAMALOV (RUS) 

74kg 
GOLD - Timur BIZHOEV (RUS) 
SILVER - Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO) 
BRONZE - Akhmed USMANOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Kakhaber KHUBEZHTY (RUS) 

79kg 
GOLD - Gadzhi NABIEV (RUS) 
SILVER - Atsamaz SANAKOEV (RUS)
BRONZE - Alan ZASEEV (RUS)
BRONZE - Khalil AMINOV (RUS)

86kg 
GOLD - Vladislav VALIEV (RUS)
SILVER - Magomedsharif BIIAKAEV (RUS)
BRONZE - Slavik NANIEV (RUS)
BRONZE - Soslan KTSOEV (RUS)

92kg
GOLD - Anzor URISHEV (RUS)
SILVER - Magomed KURBANOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Alikhan ZHABRAILOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Sharif SHARIFOV (AZE) 

97kg
GOLD - Vladislav BAITCAEV (RUS)
SILVER - Shamil MUSAEV (RUS)
BRONZE - Zaynulla KURBANOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Igor OVSIANNIKOV (RUS)

125kg 
GOLD - Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) 
SILVER - Jaber Taghi SADEGHZADEH (IRI) 
Mukhamagazi MAGOMEDOV (RUS)
Vitalii GOLOEV (RUS)

3. Tehran to Host 2018 World Wrestling Clubs Cup 

Tehran, Iran is set to host the fifth annual World Wrestling Clubs Cup on December 13-14. 

Last year, 16 World and Olympic medalists took part in the two-day competition, but it was Iran's Easy Pipe Kashan who edged defending champions from the United States, Titan Mercury, 6-4, while Setaregan Sari (IRI) downed Khimori (MGL) in the third-place dual.

One interesting note regarding this year's World Wrestling Clubs Cup, the United State's will not be sending a team to Tehran. Due to the World Championships being pushed back to October, the United States decided to rest their athletes and not send them to Iran. 

2017 Finals Results 
57kg - Reza ATARI (Easy Pipe) df. Thomas GILMAN (TMWC), 6-4 
61kg- Vladimir KHINCHEGASHVILI (Easy Pipe) df. Alan WATERS (TMWC), 7-0
65kg- Farzad AMOUZAD KHALILI df. (Easy Pipe) Bernard FUTRELL (TMWC), 6-3
70kg- Mohammad NADERI (Easy Pipe) df. Franklin GOMEZ (TMWC), 2-2
74kg- Nazariy KULCHYTSKYY (TMWC) df. Hossein ELYASI (Easy Pipe), 5-4 
79kg- Kyle DAKE (TMWC) TF. Reza AFZALI (Easy Pipe), 12-0
86kg- David TAYLOR (TMWC) df. Alireza KARIMI (Easy Pipe), 3-1 
92kg- Hossein SHAHBAZI (Easy Pipe) df. Nickolas HEFLIN (Titan), 4-2
97kg- Kyle SNYDER (TMWC) TF. Vladislav BAITSAEV (Easy Pipe), 11-0
125kg - Geno PETRIASHVILI (Easy Pipe) df. Nick GWIAZDOWSKI (Titan), 6-5


Aleksander KOMAROV (RUS), 82kg Haparanda Cup champion. (Photo by Max Rose-Fyne) 

4. Russia Wins Quartet of Golds at 2018 Haparanda Cup
Over 60 wrestlers made the trip to Haparanda, Sweden to compete in the annual Haparanda Cup. Per usual, the Russian Federation was locked and loaded, winning four of the nine overall Haparanda Cup gold medals. 

The most notably gold medal came at 82kg where the Russian youngster Aleksander KOMAROV (RUS) competed in his first tournament since September when he captured the 2018 junior world title in Tampere, Finland. This was Komarov’s second junior world title, but his fourth overall age-level world title. He also won back-to-back cadet world titles in 2015 and 2016. 

Without a doubt, Komarov has the most impressive Greco-Roman resumes in recent memory. Since stepping on the international scene back in 2015, he’s entered 13 tournaments and has yet to face defeat at any of those 13 tournaments. 

In addition to his four age-level world and European titles, Komarov also has five senior-level tournament gold medals to his name. 

Russia also had a trio of other gold medalists. They were Yuri DENISOV (RUS), Ivan CHERNOV (RUS), and Maxim SAYARYAN (RUS). Russia was the only country to win more than one gold medal. Finland, Norway Sweden, Ukraine, and the United States were the remaining five nations who won a solo gold medal. 

RESULTS 
60 kg   
GOLD - Maksym LIU (UKR)
SILVER - Christoffer SVENSSON (SWE)
BRONZE - Roope MIETTUNEN (FIN)

63kg 
GOLD - Alexander BICA (SWE)
SILVER - Colton RUSHE (USA)
BRONZE - Raffaele MASI (USA)

67kg  
GOLD - Håvard JORGENSEN (NOR) 
SILVER - Jamel JOHNSON (USA)
BRONZE - Denis BOLUNOV (EST)
BRONZE - Serhii HRUSHYN (UKR)

72kg  
GOLD - Yuri DENISOV (RUS) 
SILVER - Akseli  KISALIJAT (FIN)
BRONZE - Ihor BYCHKOV (UKR)
BRONZE - Vladyslav KRAVCHENKO (UKR)

77kg  
GOLD - Ivan CHERNOV (RUS)
SILVER - Sakke PUROLAINEN (FIN) 
BRONZE - Pat SMITH (USA)
BRONZE - Roni PUROLAINEN (FIN)

82kg   
GOLD - Aleksander KOMAROV (RUS)
SILVER - Dmytro GARDUBEI (UKR)
BRONZE - John STEFANOWICZ (USA) 
BRONZE - Vitalii ANDRILOVYCH  (UKR)

87kg
GOLD - Rami HIETANIEMI (FIN) 
SILVER - Joe RAU (USA) 
BRONZE - Duguchiev MOVSAR (RUS)
BRONZE - Valentyn SHKLIARENKO (UKR) 

97kg 
GOLD – Maxim SAYARYAN (RUS)
SILVER - Billy RAAF (SWE)
BRONZE - Daniel MILLER (USA) 
BRONZE - Kalle PERSSON (SWE)

130kg 
GOLD - Trent OSNES (USA) 

5. United World Wrestling Yearly Awards to be Released Over Next Few Weeks 
As the 2018 calendar year comes to a close, it leaves an opportunity for the wrestling world to reflect on successes over the previous twelve months. In the next few weeks, United World Wrestling will be releasing their annual year-end awards. Like past year’s awards, this year’s awards will look at some of the best matches, athletes, and performances from 2018. 

If you have a favorite moment, match, or wrestler that you think should be included in our annual awards; please share your thoughts on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter! 

Weekly FIVE! In Social Media 

1.Big Move Monday! 
2.  Flipping into the week like. 
3. Black and white photos from #BudaWrestle2018 
4. Steam coming off a young Indian wrestler 
5. Matcharshvili outscored his opponents 40-0 to win the 97kg U23 world title.

Weekly FIVE!

Weekly FIVE! April 23, 2019

Tuesday, April 23, 2019 - 14:54 By Eric Olanowski

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Discussing the American's winning ten freestyle Pan-American golds, and the Asian and Oceania Championships. Also looking at Olympic champions Icho and Gatsalov making their returns after long layoffs. 

1. USA Freestyle Sweeps Pan-American Championships 
In what was the most dominant continental performance ever, the United States’ freestyle team swept the Pan-American Championships in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and won all ten gold medals. 

En route to their history-making performance, the United States went a perfect 34-0 and outscored their opponents 301-28. The USA finished with 250 points, which was 121 points ahead of second place Canada, who closed out the freestyle portion of the tournament with 129 points. 

Cuba (115 points), Puerto Rico (72 points), and Venezuela (68 points) rounded out the top five in freestyle. 

Meanwhile, the Stars and Stripes also claimed team titles in Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling.

In Greco-Roman, the USA inserted eight wrestlers into gold-medal bouts and won four gold medals. Cuba (135 points), Brazil (98 points), Venezuela (84 points), and Mexico (64 points), finished second through fifth respectively.

In women’s wrestling, the Red, White, and Blue medaled in nine of ten weights, including reaching the top of the podium in five weight classes. The USA finished with 200 points. The other top-five team finishers respectively were Canada (167 points), Ecuador (89 points), Brazil (89 points), and Cuba (86 points). 

Click here for full Pan-American Results

2. Asian Championships Kicked off Today in Xi’an, China 
The Asian Championships kicked off today at Xi’an's Electronic Science and Technology University Gymnasium and will last through Sunday (March 28). 

The first five freestyle weights were settled today, and it was a trio of Iranian wrestlers who grabbed titles on the opening day, with the 65kg and 70kg gold medals going to India’s Bajrang PUNIA (IND) and Kazakhstan’s Nurkozha KAIPANOV respectively. 

The three Iranian champions who gave their country the lead heading into the final day of freestyle wrestling were Reza Ahmadali ATRINAGHARCHI (57kg), Bahman Mohammad TEYMOURI (79kg), and Reza Mohammad Ali YAZDANI (97kg). 

Women’s wrestling, which returns two champions, one silver, and seven returning bronze medalists, begins on Thursday. Greco-Roman, which features one returning finalist and five bronze medalists, begins on Saturday and will close out the 2019 Asian Championships. 

All the action can be followed live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org. 

SCHEDULE
Wednesday (March 24) 
9:30 - Medical examination and Weigh-in FS – 61-74-86-92-125kg 
11:30 - Qualification rounds and repechage FS – 61-74-86-92-125kg
14:45 - Draw WW – 50-55-59-68-76kg
18:00 - Finals FS – 61-74-86-92-125kg / Award ceremonies

Thursday (March 25) 
9:30 - Medical examination and Weigh-in WW – 50-55-59-68-76kg
11:30 - Qualification rounds and repechage WW – 50-55-59-68-76kg
14:45 - Draw WW – 53-57-62-65-72kg
18:00 - Finals WW – 50-55-59-68-76kg / Award ceremonies

Friday (March 26) 
9:30 - Medical examination and Weigh-in WW – 53-57-62-65-72kg
11:30 - Qualification rounds and repechage WW – 53-57-62-65-72kg
14:45 - Draw GR – 55-63-77-87-130kg
18:00 - Finals WW – 53-57-62-65-72kg / Award ceremonies 

Saturday (March 27) 
9:30 - Medical examination and Weigh-in GR – 55-63-77-87-130kg 
11:30 - Qualification rounds and repechage GR – 55-63-77-87-130kg
14:45 - Draw GR – 60-67-72-82-97kg
18:00 - Finals GR – 55-63-77-87-130kg / Award ceremonies 

Sunday (March 28) 
9:30 - Medical examination and Weigh-in GR – 60-67-72-82-97kg
11:30 - Qualification rounds and repechage GR – 60-67-72-82-97kg 
18:00 - Finals matches GR – 60-67-72-82-97kg Award ceremonies 

Olympic champion Khadshimourad GATSALOV (ARM) will transfer from Russia to Armenia with the hope of competing at the 2019 World Championships. (Photo: Gabor Martin)

3. Olympic Champion Gatsalov Seeking Transfer From Russia to Armenia 
Khadshimourad GATSALOV, the five-time world and Athens Olympic champion, is expected to return to the mat for the first time since 2016. But, it won’t for the Russian Federation where he conquered the world and Olympic stage a combined six times, and will instead be for Armenia. 

Within the last few weeks, Gatsalov began the transfer process and has aspirations of competing in an Armenian singlet at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, which take place in mid-September. 

According to sources close to the Armenian Wrestling Federation, Gatasalov was originally notified that “the transfer would not be approved until after October or November." But Armenia is "trying to manage that the transfer be approved before September for the World Championships.” 

If Gatsalov’s transfer does get approved before September, he’ll compete for Armenia at 97kg. This means that 97kg at the World Championships will house Olympic champions Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RUS), Kyle SNYDER (USA), and now, Khadshimourad Gatsalov.

Here's Gatasalov's Instagram page. 

Japan's four-time Olympic champion Kaori ICHO returns to the mat on Friday after a 32-month layoff (Photo: Gabor Martin) 

4. Four-Time Olympic Champion Icho to Wrestle Friday 
The most decorated women’s wrestler ever, Kaori ICHO, is set to make her international return for the first time in 32 months. In her last international outing, Icho became the first woman to reach the top of the podium at the Olympic Games four consecutive times. 

The 34-year-old will compete on Friday at 57kg at the 2019 Asian Championships.  

For Icho to win her sixth Asian title, she’ll have to fight through one of the deepest weight classes of the tournament. The favorite to win the 57kg is China’s reigning world champion RONG Ningning (CHN), who is the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the world at this weight. 

Those two will have formidable company in the form of Budapest 2018 world bronze medalist Pooja DHANDA (IND), the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov winner at 59kg; Tserenchimed SUKHEE (MGL), the world U23 bronze medalist and Ivan Yarygin Grand Prix winner; and JONG Myong-Suk (PRK), the Asian Games champion and a world bronze medalist at 55kg.

5. Oceania Championships Wrap up in Yona, Guam 
The Oceania Championships wrapped up in Yona, Guam, and the Federated States of Micronesia won the freestyle and Greco-Roman team titles. 

In freestyle, the Federated States of Micronesia had champions at 57kg and 92kg, while also welcoming medalists in four other weight classes. The Federated States of Micronesia (127 points) completed the continental championship run seven points ahead of second place Guam (120 points). American Samoa and Palau tied for third place with 80 points, while French Polynesia, who had 65 points, rounded out the top five in the team race. 

In Greco-Roman, the Federated States of Micronesia (100 points) medaled in five of the nine contested weights, including winning the 63kg gold medal. Their other points came from second-place finishes at the 67kg, 77kg, and 82kg, while also winning the bronze medal at 97kg. 

Palau (90 points) and American Samoa (80 points) rounded out the top three in the team race. 

Click here for full Oceania Championship results. 

Weekly FIVE! In Social Media 

1. Senior Asian C'ships From the 25th to the 28th Of April.
2. Selection of early action from the #wrestlebuenosaires w/lots of action!
3. Bajrang (IND) comes out on top after being down on points to take gold at the 2019 Asian Championships in Xi'an ??
4. Slick wrestling from Kaipanov KAZ in the 1/4 finals. 
5. Big Move from Day 4 of #wrestlebuenosaires! ?