Weekly FIVE! May 14, 2018

Monday, May 14, 2018 - 12:31 By

Reviewing Thursday's Beat the Streets, the Youth Olympic Games qualifiers and Yazdani making Iran's world team.

1. Cadet European Championships Begin Monday
The 2018 Cadet European Championships begin Monday, May 14 in Skopje, Macedonia.

The second cadet continental championship will serve as a qualifier for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games which take place this October.

The first place finisher in freestyle and Greco-Roman will qualify their countries spot in the five designated weight classes, while the first and second place finishers in women's wrestling will qualify their nations spot for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

European Championship Schedule

Youth Olympic Weight Classes
Freestyle - 48kg, 55kg, 65kg, 80kg, and 110kg
Greco-Roman - 45kg, 51kg, 60kg, 71kg, and 92kg
Women's Wrestling - 43kg, 49kg, 57kg, 65kg, and 73kg

Amir ZARE (IRI) closes out the 2018 Cadet Asian Championship with a 10-0 win over Kumar ANIRUDH (IND). (Photo by Sachiko Hotaka)

2. Iran's Cadets Illuminate Uzbekistan
Iranian freestyle wrestlers left the 2018 Cadet Asian Championships with medals in all but one weight class.

Iran claimed an impressive six golds and three bronzes to close out the first cadet continental championship of the year.

Even more impressive, in their six finals bouts, Iranian wrestlers picked up four technical superiority wins and averaged nearly ten points a match!

Full Cadet Asian Championship Results

3. Beat the Streets Match-up Order Announced
The wait is almost over!

Three Olympic champions in Togrul ASGAROV (AZE), Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) and Helen MAROULIS (USA) are set to compete at Beat the Streets which begins this Thursday, May 17 at 2:30 PM in New York, New York.

The final two duals, USA vs. Nigeria and USA vs. Cuba start at 6:30 PM.

Women's Freestyle
USA vs. Nigeria
57kg: Helen MAROULIS (USA) vs. Odunayo ADEKUROYE (NGR)
59 kg: Alli RAGAN (USA) vs. Adeniyi AMINAT (NGR)
68 kg: Tamyra STOCK (USA) vs. Blessing OBORUDUDU (NGR)

FREESTYLE
USA vs. Cuba
57kg – Josh RODRIGUEZ (USA) vs. Reineri ORTEGA (CUB)
70kg – James GREEN (USA) vs. Franklin MAREN CASTILLO (CUB)
79kg – Kyle DAKE (USA) vs. Livan LOPEZ AZCUY (CUB)
92kg – J’den COX (USA) vs. Yurieski TORREBLANCA QUERALTA (CUB)
97kg – Kyle SNYDER (USA) vs. Reineris SALAS PEREZ (CUB)
125kg– Nick GWIAZDOWSKI (USA) vs. Yudenny ESTEVEZ (CUB)

Age-level Match-up - Patrick GLORY (USA) vs. Gavin TEASDALE (USA)

Co-Main Event – Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) vs. Frank CHAMIZO (ITA)
Main Event – Jordan OLIVER (USA) vs. Togrul ASGAROV (AZE)

4. Olympic Champion, Yazdani Locks up Another Iranian World Team Spot
The world and Olympic champion, Hassan YAZDANI (IRI) defeated 2018 Takhti Cup champion, Kamran GHASEMPOUR (IRI) twice in the best of three series to make Iran’s 2018 Asian Games and 2018 World Championship roster.

In the first match-up, Yazdani was tested early, giving up the first two points. The reigning world champion came back to outscore Ghasempour, 8-0 to take the first match, 8-2.

The Olympic champion remained undefeated in Iran for the fourth consecutive year with a 5-0 victory in the second match.

FULL RESULTS

5. Youth Olympic Qualifications by Country
The 2018 Youth Olympic Games will take place October 12-14 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The highest placing athlete from the Asian Championships qualified their countries spot for the Games in both freestyle and Greco-Roman.

In women's wrestling, the top two athletes from the Asian Championships qualified their nations spot for the Buenos Aires Games.

Qualifiers After the Cadet Asian Championships
Freestyle
48kg - UZB
55kg - JPN
65kg - IRI
80kg - IRI
110kg - IRI

Greco-Roman
45kg - IRI
51kg - JPN
60kg - UZB
71kg - JPN
92kg - IRI

Women's Wrestling
43kg - JPN and MGL
49kg - JPN and UZB
57kg - JPN and IND
65kg - JPN and CHN
73kg - JPN and UZB

Full Cadet Asian Championship Results

Weekly FIVE! In Social Media

1. Big Move Monday! @vlasovroma90 #kaspeuro2018
2. Happy Mother’s Day, wrestling fans!
3. One of the most anticipated matches in years will go down May 17th in NYC. If you live in the area go ahead and support @beatthestreets, which provides wrestling opportunities to disadvantaged youth around the city. —>http://bit.ly/rotr-tix
4. Preparing for the match #wrestling #sportsgirl #cadet #asia #борьба
5. A few Black and Whites from the 2018 European Championships Kaspiysk. #wrestling #kaspiysk2018 #unitedworldwrestling

#WrestleParis

Paris 2024: For France wrestling trio, Olympics come home. Literally

Wednesday, July 17, 2024 - 07:40 By United World Wrestling Press

PARIS (July 17) -- To compete at a home Olympics can be an unparalleled career high for the best of athletes. Even more so for the three French wrestlers, for whom the Games have come home — quite literally.

When Koumba LARROQUE, Ameline DOUARRE and Mamadassa SYLLA check in at the Athletes Village in Seine Saint Denis and step on the mat at the picturesque venue in Champs de Mars, it’ll mark a culmination of their stories that took shape just a stone's throw away, at the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

Koumba LARROQUE (FRA) at Club Bagnolet Lutte 93.

Indeed, there are many wrestling strongholds in France. Dijon, roughly 320 km from Paris, is one such hub that is home to many young stars. And quite a few of them train at France’s National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance — commonly known as INSEP, a facility that’s also designated as the United World Wrestling Center.

However, the presence of wrestling stars who have honed their skills at Bagnolet, the famous Parisian club, in the French team is steeped in symbolism. Not least because it is located close to the two Olympic landmark sites.

But by competing at the home Games, the trio will also carry forward the commune’s century-long wrestling tradition, which also captures the growth of the sport between the two Olympics Paris has hosted.

Ameline DOUARRE (FRA) will compete at Paris Olympics in 62kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

It was exactly a hundred years ago, in 1924, that the Association Sportive et Gymnasnique de Bagnolet reinvented and transformed itself into a sports club, kick-starting a revolution of sorts in the area not too far from Paris’s city center.

Nothing nails down Bagnolet’s wrestling culture more than the fact that, according to a survey on the club’s website, two out of three youngsters wrestled. However, it was only after an agreement was reached with the department of Seine Saint Denis — the heart of the Games where the Athletes Village is located — that the sport really took off and the Club Bagnolet Lutte 93 came into being in its current form in 2005.

From Mélonin NOUMONVI, the 2014 Greco-Roman world champion, to Olympic gold medalist Steeve GUENOT and his bronze medal-winning brother Christophe as well as the latest sensation, the former U20 and U23 world champion Larroque – many French champions have spent key years of their development at the club.

But Larroque, Douarre and Sylla have a chance to do something none of their predecessors could: compete in their own backyard.

Mamadassa SYLLA (FRA) after his qualification for the 2024 Paris Games. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Sylla, who discovered wrestling at age 15, finished fifth at the European Championships this year and will compete in the 67 kg Greco-Roman category. Douarre is a last-minute entrant to the draw after withdrawals in the 62 kg weight class.

Sylla, who was a second-choice wrestler for the qualification tournament in Baku, became the first wrestler from France to qualify in Grec-Roman since the 2012 London Games, the last time France won an Olympic medal in wrestling, a bronze by 2008 Beijing champion Steve GUENOT (FRA).

Larroque, though, remains the flag-bearer for French wrestling at the Paris Olympics. Introduced to wrestling at age 9, a youth Olympics medallist at 16, and U23 world champion when she was 19 and a senior worlds silver medallist in the same year, Larroque was destined for greatness.

But her career arc suffered a setback. An injury in the 2018 World Championship final meant she was away from the mat for almost a year. Once she recovered, Larroque looked like a shadow of her past self as she could not manage any podium finishes. And although she made it to Tokyo, she was eliminated after the first round itself.

Paris provides the 68kg wrestler a path to redemption. To finish among medals in front of her family and friends — and a short distance away from her club — would undoubtedly be an unparalleled high in Larroque’s career.

Weekly FIVE! May 14, 2018

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Paris 2024: For France wrestling trio, Olympics come home. Literally