Francophonie

Wrestling Meets with Francophone Committee

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (September 22) -- A meeting was held earlier this month at the United World Wrestling headquarters with the Wrestling Francophonie Committee to discuss developments of the Francophonie countries and future developments in view of the next Francophone Games

Dr. Alioune Sarr- member and chairman of traditional wrestling also discussed that the new Wrestling Arena of Senegal will be an important venue to organize events, training camps, and other courses in helping to further expand the development of wrestling in Africa.

The main topics were the development of African countries in particular the French speakers and the use of the wrestling stadium of Dakar as a development tool to organize regularly development activities for the West-African region.

The committee also discussed how to reinforce the development activities for the participating nations prior to Francophone Games and to continue the collaboration between the organizations.

Those in attendance and featured in the photograph:

Mr. Nenad Lalovic
Mr. Michel Dusson
Mr. Didier Sauvaire – President of the Wrestling Francophonie Committee
Mr. Alain Bertholom - member
Dr. Alioune Sarr- member and chairman of traditional wrestling
Ms. Deqa Niamkey

 

 

#wrestlemanama

World C'ships 2026 to be held in October; U20 Worlds in Bratislava

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (December 8) -- United World Wrestling has officially confirmed the host city for the 2026 U20 World Championships and finalized the competition dates for the 2026 Senior World Championships.

In addition, the host for 2026 Asian Championships has also been shifted from Amman, Jordan to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Bratislava, Slovakia, has been selected to host the 2026 U20 World Championships. Bratislava had successfully hosted the 2025 European Championships in April with sellout stadium. The U20 World Championships in 2026 are scheduled to take place from August 17 to 23 and a similar crowd is expected for the competition.

UWW also confirmed the competition window for the 2026 Senior World Championships to be hosted in Manama, Bahrain, which was announced as hosts during a ceremony held in Zagreb in September.

The World Championships are set to run from October 24 to November 1, providing nine days of action featuring the world’s top wrestlers.

No Arab country has ever hosted a World Championships but Bahrain will etch its name in history with the 2026 edition.

"Bahrain has a superstar in wrestling," UWW President Nenad LALOVIC had said. "They probably want to use this opportunity to promote the sport through this superstar [Akhmed] TAZHUDINOV (BRN). But he's not the only one.

"They also want to develop the local Bahrain born athletes to compete because they have the role model of the top achievement in wrestling. This is something that we considered and that is why we made this decision."

The Asian Championships, originally scheduled in Amman will now be hosted by Bishkek from April 6 to 12.

The 2026 U15 & U20 Asian Championships have been moved from Bangkok to Pattaya.

The U17, U20 and senior African Championships will be held in Alexandria, Egypt from April 28 to May 3. In addition, the dates for the 2026 Pan-American Championships were also modified. The competition will now be held from May 7 to 10 in Coralville, Iowa, United States.

For the full 2026 calendar, visit uww.org/events.