Ivan Yarygin

Yarygin Day Two Finals

By Eric Olanowski

Russia continued its dominance on day two of the Ivan Yarygin placing five of a possible six into the night's finals. The host nation has now placed 11 of 12 wrestlers into the first six freestyle weights.

Defending Yarygin champion Ilyas BEKBULATOV (RUS) picked up a quick win in the semifinals scoring a takedown and four gut wrenches to earn the 10-0 win. Bekbultakov will meet 2017 world bronze medalist Akhmed CHAKAEV (RUS) in the finals. Chakaev took out Tsogtbaatar DAMDINBAZAR (MGL), 9-1 in his semifinal.

Kyle Dake broke Russia's strangehold on the finals with a 10-0 technical superiority victory in the 79kg semifinals. Dake faces Shiabdinovitch GADZHIMAGOMEDOV (RUS) who squeaked out a 2-1 semifinal victory over Radik VALIEV (RUS).

At 125kg, Muradin KUSHKHOV (RUS) will wrestle fellow Russian, Anzor Ruslanovitch KHIZRIEV who only ceded four points through his first three matches. Kushkov defeated 2017 world bronze medalist Nicholas GWIAZDOWSKI (USA) in the quarterfinals.

In women’s wrestling, China, Japan and Mongolia each enter tonight’s session with two finalists.  China and Japan are looking to expand on their gold medal haul, having each captured a pair of gold medals on Friday night. Russia’s Stalvira ORSHUSH (RUS) and Tamyra MENSAH (USA) are also making final appearances, with Mensah looking to defend her 2017 title.

Here are the final matches:

65kg

GOLD - Akhmed CHAKAEV (RUS) vs. Ilias BEKBULATOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Nachyn Sergeevitch KUULAR (RUS) vs. Batmagnai BATCHULUUN (MGL) 

BRONZE - Selahattin KILICSALLAYAN (TUR) vs. Tsogtbaatar DAMDINBAZAR (MGL) 

79kg

GOLD - Kyle DAKE (USA) vs. Akhmed Shiabdinovitch GADZHIMAGOMEDOV (RUS)
BRONZE - Muhammet KUTANOGLU (TUR) vs. Radik VALIEV (RUS)
BRONZE - Alan ZASEEV (RUS) vs. Rashid KURBANOV (UZB)

125kg

GOLD - Muradin KUSHKHOV (RUS) vs. Anzor Ruslanovitch KHIZRIEV (RUS) 
BRONZE -
Zolboo NATSAGSUREN (MGL) vs. Zachery William REY (USA) 

BRONZE - Nicholas GWIAZDOWSKI (USA) vs. Lkhagvagerel MUNKHTUR (MGL) 

Women’s wrestling

53kg

GOLD - Yu MIYAHARA (JPN) df. Stalvira ORSHUSH (RUS), 4-4
BRONZE -  
Ekaterina POLESHCHUK (RUS) df. Yujiao LIU (CHN), 4-4

BRONZE -  Natalia MALYSHEVA (RUS) df. Otgonjargal GANBAATAR (MGL), 7-3

57kg

GOLD - Gantuya ENKHBAT (MGL) vs. Qi ZHANG (CHN) 
BRONZE -  
Lianna de la caridad MONTERO HERRERA (CUB) vs. Battsetseg ALTANTSETSEG (MGL) 
BRONZE - Olga KHOROSHAVTSEVA (RUS) vs. Alexandra ANDREEVA (RUS)

62kg

GOLD - Orkhon PUREVDORJ (MGL) vs. Kiwa SAKAE (JPN) 
BRONZE - Ayaulym KASSYMOVA (KAZ) vs. Yaquelin ESTORNELL ELIZASTIGUE (CUB) 
BRONZE -  Juan KANG (CHN) vs. Inna TRAZHUKOVA (RUS) 

68kg
GOLD -  Tamyra mariama MENSAH (USA) df. Yue HAN (CHN)

BRONZE - Yudari SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ (CUB) df. Iuliia MAKSIMOVA BARTNOVSKAIA (RUS)BRONZE -  Rui XU (CHN) df. Galina BULATOVA (RUS)

THIS IS THE START OF THE Yarygin Live Notebook - Day Two 

The second day of wrestling at the 2018 Ivan Yarygin kicks off at 11:00am. Here is where you can WATCH the three men's freestyle and four women's wrestling categories that are in action today. 

Did you miss the action from the first day? Here is everything that you may have missed from DAY ONE of the #Yarygin2018. 

PHOTO OF THE DAY - DAY ONE 

TWEETS OF THE DAY 
Get social with United World Wrestling (@wrestling) on twitter and use the #Yarygin2018 for a chance to be featured on our TWEETS OF THE DAY!  

Freestyle

The three Freestyle  weight categories that will compete today are 65kg,79kg and 125kg. 

First and Second Round 
Logan STIEBER (USA), the 2016 World champion trailed 3-2 heading into the second period when he picked up a takedown to a leg lace. Stieber ended the match with that sequence, 13-3. 

Over on MAT A, BATCHULUUN Batmagnai (MGL) and Lazaro Dayron CARBONELL VALDES (CUB) are wrestling in what's going to be a MATCH OF THE DAY CANDIDATE. The final score of this match was 13-9 in favor of Batchluun. 

Y. Rodrigues BONNE (CUB) who is one of the most explosive wrestlers on the planet is coming up on MAT A. Chalk up Y. Rodrigues BONNE (CUB) for another #BIGMOVEMONDAY! He just ended his first round match with an insane five point move. 

Ilias BEKBULATOV (RUS) and Logan STIEBER (USA) are about to come to MAT A. Bekbulatov's the returning champion, and as previsouly mentioned, Stieber is a world champion.

There were a few good exchanges, but overall it was Bekbulatov's defense and gut wrench that helped seal the 16-6 technical superiority victory. 

Fan favorite, Cengizhan ERDOGAN (TUR) just picked up his second victory of the day, putting himself into the quaterfinals at 65kg. 

Bonne trails 6-3 with under a minute left over on Mat A. After giving up a four-point move, BATCHULUUN Batmagnai (MGL) won, 10-3. 

Over on Mat C, it will be back-to-back matches for the Americans. First up was Bobby TELFORD,  now it's Zach RAY (USA). 

Quarterfinals (2:22 PM) 

FS 65kg - (2:25 PM) - Ilias BEKBULATOV (RUS) just scored twelve unanswered points and leads Nachyn Sergeevitch KUULAR (RUS), 12-4 with two minutes remaining in the second period.  Bekbulatov  wins and moves onto the 65kg semifinals. He'll wrestle the winner of Cengizhan ERDOGAN (TUR) and Batmagnai BATCHULUUN (MGL). 

FS 79kg - (2:25 PM) - The 79kg quarterfinals are about to begin over on Mat B. 

FS 79kg - (2:33 PM) - Kyle DAKE (USA) outlasts Alan ZASEEV (RUS) to make the semifinals at 79kgs. 

FS 65kg - (2:54 PM) - The semifinals are starting over on Mat A with  Tsogtbaatar DAMDINBAZAR (MGL) and Akhmed CHAKAEV (RUS). 

 

Women's Wrestling 
The four women's wrestling weight categories that will compete today are 53kg, 57kg, 62kg and  68 kg. 

Erdenesukh NARANGEREL (MGL) just capped off her second round match with a 12-2 technical fall over Ekaterina POLESHCHUK (RUS). ERDENESUKH used a blast double right to a leg lace to score the final four points of the match. 

Stalvira ORSHUSH (RUS) uses two takedowns to defeat Natalia MALYSHEVA (RUS), 4-0. 

WW 57kg - (3:11 PM) Gantuya ENKHBAT (MGL) and Alexandra ANDREEVA (RUS) will wrestle in the first women's wrestling semifinal on Mat B. 

#WrestleTirana

U23 Worlds: Motivated Hlinchuk makes golden return

By Vinay Siwach

TIRANA, Albania (October 28) -- The last two years have been extremely difficult for Pavel HLINCHUK (AIN). With no international wrestling for him, the 21-year-old felt like moving away from the sport. The death of his first coach six months ago and then the passing of his uncle troubled Hlinchuk emotionally.

"These have been the toughest two years of my whole life," Hlinchuk says. "After being away from international competitions for two years, as well as not being able to train at all for about 8-9 months, I wanted to return. These reasons gave me motivation."

Making a return to international wrestling at the U23 World Championships, Hlinchuk made it golden by capturing the U23 world title in Tirana, Albania on Saturday.

A U20 world champion from 2021, Hlinchuk looked like he was never away from the mat, beating Mustafa OLGUN (TUR) 4-3 in the 97kg final. Despite a few aggressive moments in towards the end of the final, Hlinchuk kept his cool to deny Olgun.

"Many people will agree, that it's difficult to describe this feeling," he said. "These are probably the best emotions that the athlete could ever experience, especially after the long training. I want to dedicate my win to my coach and uncle."

Pavel HLINCHUK (AIN)Pavel HLINCHUK (AIN) defends the par terre position against Mustafa OLGUN (TUR). (Photo: UWW / Ulug Bugra Han Degirmenci)

The final may have been a close battle but Hlinchuk's previous bouts in Tirana were completely one-sided. He outscored his opponents 29-5 before Olgun checked his dominant run.

Olgun got the first point for par terre and though he could not score any points, he managed to score a stepout from neutral to lead 2-0. Hlinchuk turned the tables in the second period by scoring a turn from par terre to lead 3-2.

With around a minute left, Olgun managed to lock Hlinchuk and bring him down on his back. It was ultimately given a fall but Hlinchuk's corner challenged for a leg foul. On review, the fall was reversed as Olgun had in fact brought Hlinchuk down using his leg.

A few moments later, the two got warned by the referee for aggressive wrestling. Olgun again came close to winning as he brought Hlinchuk towards the zone, scoring a stepout with Hlinchuk falling. The referee awarded caution two points to Hlinchuk for a singlet-grab from Olgun. But the judge and mat chairman gave one point to Olgun for stepout. Hlinchuk now led 3-3 on criteria as he had a two-point turn while Olgun had three one-point scores.

Turkiye challenged the decision but on review, it was only given one point to Olgun. A point was added to Hlinchuk's score for Turkiye's lost challenge. In the final eight seconds, Hlinchuk kept Olgun at a distance and won 4-3.

"From outside it might have been seen as if I gave up," he said referring to the fall. "People might have thought that I gave it up and got pinned. But in reality, I immediately felt his leg foul. This still didn't give me the right to give up and secondly, I thought that my head was outside when he was pinning me, so I was relaxed, which is also not an excuse."

Pavel HLINCHUK (AIN)Pavel HLINCHUK (AIN) celebrates after winning the 97kg gold in Tirana. (Photo: UWW / Kadir Caliskan)

Hlinchuk burst into prolonged celebrations, including a somersault, after the win. Comparing his 2021 campaign in which he won the silver medal to Saturday's gold, Hlinchuk said he has adopted a more risk-free game plan.

"Back in 2021, I was not completely ready even though I won U20 gold and U23 silver," he said. "I was different back then. Now I've grown up, I try to think more, analyze more and be riskless. Back then I only wanted to win as fast as possible. And if I wasn't winning the match, I would lose concentration. Now I don't do that anymore. Even though the final match didn't go as planned, I wrestled with a clear mind."

After the medal ceremony, Hlinchuk also revealed that he was motivated by reading about last year's champion Alex SZOKE (HUN) returning but also his own name in an article. [Szoke lost 4-4 to Lucas LAZOGIANIS (GER) in the quarterfinals and the German lost to Hlinchuk in the semifinals.]

"I was motivated by the article that I read before this championship," he said. "It was written that last year's champion Alex Szoke is coming. But at the same time, Pavel Hlinchuk is coming as well, trying to change the color of his medal. I had this on my mind and that motivated me a lot."

Indeed, Hlinchuk will return home after upgrading his 2021 U23 world silver to gold this year in Tirana.