WrestleOlegKaravaev

Oleg Karavaev Entries

Thursday, July 18, 2019 - 16:45 By Eric Olanowski

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MINSK, Belarus (July 19) --- The regular season closes out next week with the final Greco-Roman Ranking Series event, the Oleg Karavaev. The two-day tournament, which will be held in Minsk, Belarus, will feature nearly 175 wrestlers from 19 different nations.

Emrah KUS (TUR), the reigning world runner-up and No. 1-ranked wrestler in the world at 82kg, leads a field littered with 24 wrestlers who are ranked inside the top-20 of the latest Greco-Roman rankings. Kus' weight of 82kg will feature six ranked wrestlers -- which is the most top-20 guys in one bracket.

Two other stacked weight classes to pay attention to are 67kg and 130kg. Both weights house at least four top-20 competitors.

Wrestling at the Palace of Sports begins on July 26 and can be followed live on www.unitedworldwrestling.org.

ENTRIES

55kg
Manjeet MANJEET (IND)
Vijay VIJAY (IND)
Maksym VYSOTSKYI (ISR)
Vladimir ZABEYVOROTA RUS)
Emin Narimanovitch SEFERSHAEV (RUS)

60kg
Ihar DROZD (BLR)
Dzmitry BRYCHAK (BLR)
Marat GARIPOV  (BRA)
Gautam YADAV (IND)
Vijay VIJAY (IND)
Manish MANISH (IND)
Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN)
Khorlan ZHAKANSHA  (KAZ)
Amangali BEKBOLATOV (KAZ)
Zhanserik SARSENBIYEV (KAZ)
Seunghak KIM (KOR)
Artur PETROSIAN (RUS)
Sadyk LALAEV(RUS)
Ahmet UYAR   (TUR)
Andriy MARTYNYUK (UKR)
Ihor KUROCHKIN (UKR)
Javokhir MIRAKHMEDOV (UZB)
Ilkhom BAKHROMOV (UZB)

63kg
Yahor BELIAK  (BLR)
Aliaksandr PECHURENKA (BLR)
Erbatu TUO (CHN)
Sailike WALIHAN (CHN)
Juuso Aleksi LATVALA (FIN)
Sagar SAGAR (IND)
Shinobu OTA (JPN)
Aidos SULTANGALI (KAZ)
Mirambek AINAGULOV (KAZ)
Damir ZARLYKHANOV (KAZ)
Justas PETRAVICIUS (LTU)
Roman Aleksandrovich IVANOV (RUS)
Shamil Salauddinovitch MUALIEV (RUS)
Fadis VALITOV (RUS)
Nasrullakh NASIBOV (UKR)
Elmurat TASMURADOV (UZB)
Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB)
Firuz TUKHTAEV (UZB)

Second-ranked Hansu RYU (KOR) will lock up the No. 2 seed at the World Championships with a win in Minsk. (Photo: Sachiko Hotaka)

67kg 
Soslan DAUROV (BLR)
Maksim NEHODA (BLR)
Mikita BARANAU (BLR)
Fredrik Holmquist BJERREHUUS (DEN)
Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed Ibrahi ELSAYED (EGY)
Abouhalima Mohamed Elsaid ABOUHALIMA (EGY)
Manish MANISH (IND)
Tsuchika SHIMOYAMADA (JPN)
Shogo TAKAHASHI (JPN)
Daniyar KALENOV (KAZ)
Ruslan ITEMGENOV (KAZ)
Hansu RYU (KOR)
Aleksandrs JURKJANS (LAT)
Edgaras VENCKAITIS (LTU)
Alen MIRZOIAN (RUS)
Miakhdi Abubakarovitch IAKHIAEV (RUS)
Enes BASAR (TUR)
Murat FIRAT (TUR)
Vasyl SYMONENKO (UKR)
Aram VARDANYAN (UZB)
Makhmud BAKHSHILLOEV (UZB)
Mirzobek RAKHMATOV (UZB)

72kg 
Ruslan AHAMALYIEU (BLR)
Anton KORABAU (BLR)
Uladzislau MANKEVICH (BLR)
Gaoquan ZHANG (CHN)
Hassan Hassan Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY)
Miras AKHMETZHANOV (KAZ)
Meiirzhan SHERMAKHANBET (KAZ)
Kristupas SLEIVA (LTU)
Magomed YARBILOV (RUS)
Narek OGANIAN (RUS)
Arslan ZUBAIROV (RUS)
Andrii KULYK (UKR)

77kg 
Pavel LIAKH (BLR)
Tsimur BERDYIEU (BLR)
Anton SAKHNO (BLR)
Ridong ZHANG (CHN)
Hujun ZHANG  (CHN)
Jakub BIELESZ (CZE)
Mohamed Ehab Mohamed Zahab KHALIL (EGY)
Sakke Petteri PUROLAINEN (FIN)
Niko Olavi Oskari ERKKOLA (FIN)
Yogesh YOGESH (IND)
Sajan SAJAN (IND)
Naotsugu SHOJI (JPN)
Shohei YABIKU (JPN)
Ibragim MAGOMADOV (KAZ)
Paulius GALKINAS (LTU)
Rafael IUNUSOV (RUS)
Islam OPIEV (RUS)
Akhmed KAYTSUKOV  (RUS)
Serkan AKKOYUN (TUR)
Ivan KRAICHEV (UKR)
Yasaf ZEINALOV (UKR)


Top-ranked Emrah KUS (TUR) leads an 82kg field that has six ranked wrestler that'll be in action. (Photo: Gabor Martin) 

82kg 
Viktar SASUNOUSKI (BLR)
Stanislau SHAFARENKA (BLR)
Mikita KLIMOVICH (BLR)
Haitao QIAN (CHN)
Bin YANG (CHN)
Oldrich VARGA (CZE)
Rajbek Alvievich BISULTANOV (DEN)
Singh GURPREET (IND)
Singh HARPREET (IND)
Igor PETRISHIN (ISR)
Maxat YEREZHEPOV (KAZ)
Askhat ZHANBIROV (KAZ)
Miras BARSHYLYKOV (KAZ)
Milad Valerikovitch ALIRZAEV (RUS)
Emrah KUS (TUR)
Ruslan KONIEV (UKR)
Jalgasbay BERDIMURATOV (UZB)
Bilan NALGIEV (UZB)
Nurbek KHASHIMBEKOV (UZB)

87kg
Radzik KULIYEU (BLR)
Mikalai STADUB (BLR)
Kiryl MASKEVICH (BLR)
Junjie NA (CHN)
Mohamed Moustafa Ahmed Abdall METWALLY (EGY)
Kumar SUNIL (IND)
Takahiro TSURUDA (JPN)
Masato SUMI  (JPN)
Azamat KUSTUBAYEV (KAZ)
Baurzhan MUSSIN (KAZ)
Laimutis ADOMAITIS (LTU)
Martynas NEMSEVICIUS (LTU)
Julius MATUZEVICIUS (LTU)
Vaag MARGARIAN (RUS)
Gazi KHALILOV (RUS)
Dogan GOKTAS (TUR)
Muhammadali SHAMSIDDINOV (UZB)
Rustam ASSAKALOV (UZB)

97kg
Aliaksandr HRABOVIK (BLR)
Siarhei STARADUB (BLR)
Dzmitry KAMINSKI (BLR)
Yanan CHEN (CHN)
Yan LIU (CHN)
Artur OMAROV (CZE)
Ondrej DADAK (CZE)
Mathias BAK (DEN)
Ravi RAVI (IND)
Yuta NARA (JPN)
Olzhas SYRLYBAY (KAZ)
Yerulan ISKAKOV (KAZ)
Alimkhan SYZDYKOV (KAZ)
Vilius LAURINAITIS (LTU)
Ruslan BEKUZAROV (RUS)
Fatih BASKOY (TUR)
Suleyman DEMIRCI (TUR)
Ibrahim TIGCI (TUR)
Zielimkhan DZIHASOV (UKR)
Oleksandr SHYSHMAN (UKR)
Jahongir TURDIEV (UZB)

KIM Minseok (KOR), a Budapest world bronze medalist, only need one point to lock up at least a top-four seed at the World Championships. (Photo: Max Rose-Fyne)

130kg
Kiryl HRYSHCHANKA (BLR)
Georgi CHUGOSHVILI (BLR)
Javid HAMZATAU (BLR)
Yasmani ACOSTA FERNANDEZ (CHI)
Di XIAO (CHN)
Lingzhe MENG (CHN)
Stepan DAVID (CZE)
Abdellatif Mohamed Ahmed MOHAMED (EGY)
Konsta Johannes MAEENPAEAE (FIN)
Tuomas Heikki Juhani LAHTI (FIN)
Naveen NAVEEN (IND)
Damir KUZEMBAYEV (KAZ)
Mansur SHADUKAYEV (KAZ)
Minseok KIM (KOR)
Romas FRIDRIKAS (LTU)
Oleg Kahaberovitch AGAKHANOV (RUS)
Osman YILDIRIM (TUR)
Muminjon ABDULLAEV (UZB)

#WrestleTirana

Masterful Uguev Repeats as European Champion

Sunday, April 26, 2026 - 23:12 By Vinay Siwach

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TIRANA, Albania (April 26) -- Zavur UGUEV (UWW) became a two-time European champion in Tirana on Sunday. His gold medal run may have gone under that radar given the return and dominance of Abdulrashid SADULAEV (UWW), who won his sixth European gold on Saturday and first in six years.

However, if there was an award for the most outstanding wrestler of the tournament, Uguev would handsomely beat all others wrestlers to it.

On Sunday, Uguev defended his 61kg gold medal in Tirana with rather ease after defeating former world champion and home-favorite Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB). The 4-0 win over Abakarov consisted one activity clock, one stepout and a two-point takedown from Uguev.

Even the low-scoring final was a masterclass from Uguev, one of the few who still mixes the art of defense and positioning to win bouts.

At one point, Abakarov would keep trying the two-on-one on Uguev's arm and instead of panicking, Uguev would casually block Abakarov using his head. After the two-minute mark in the match, Abakarov had a similar grip and Uguev was blocking using his head and grip one of Abakarov's wrist.

Abakarov moved to a position from which he could either whizzer or wrist snap Uguev. However, as soon as Abakarov moved sideways, Uguev placed his foot behind Abakarov and let go off his grip, quickly switching to a leg-attack. He scored a stepout to lead 2-0 after one activity period point.

Uguev set up his takedown in the second period when Abakarov took a shot from space and Uguev blocked it using a chest wrap. Instead of scoring exposure from front, Uguev jumped behind and locked Abakarov who tried to break the grip. But Uguev scored a takedown on the edge to lead 4-0, his winning score.

It was in the semifinals against Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM), Uguev fell behind 3-2 but he brought down Harutyunyan in danger for two points before holding the Armenian in such a grip that he failed to move despite having split hands. Eventually, he gave up to Uguev's pressure who won via fall.

"The final is always a tough contest, both last and this year," Uguev said. "Last year it was Harutyunyan, a four-time European champion, and this year it’s Abakarov, the world champion. It’s a real pleasure to compete against them. I’ve come here solely to compete against them."

Two months ago, Uguev was in Tirana and he put on a wrestling masterclass, winning the 61kg gold medal. However, it was in Tirana that he lost to phenom Masanosuke ONO (JPN) and Vitali ARAJAU (USA) and finished fifth at the World Championships.

"I was here at the start of February for the ranking tournament, and I suppose I had some thoughts about it [losing World Championships in Tirana]," he said. "But I managed to win that tournament, and I came here with the sole intention of winning. The first attempt [2024 World Championships] didn’t go to plan."

The three-time world champion and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist at 57kg has been competing at 61kg for three years now. While he will eventually move to 57kg for a run at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Uguev says he is enjoying wrestling at a higher weight and not dieting during competitions.

"I’ll be wrestling in 65kg soon. I’m joking, of course," he said. "I’ll probably be dropping down to 57kg. I’ll probably compete for another year or so [at 61kg], and then I’ll keep dropping down. I’m not actually that heavy to begin with, and I reckon anyone competing at 57kg is roughly the same weight as me. For now, I don’t see the point in cutting weight, and I think it’s better to stay as I am for the time being, compete for another year or so. I think that this year, or early next year, we’ll start thinking about which weight class to move to.

"Now that I’ve moved up to 61kg, I’m really enjoying the competition. When I was competing at 57kg, I struggled so much. Now, when I watch the wrestlers like Musa MEKHTIKHANOV (UWW), for example, I’m reminded of my own days on the mat. It’s just that when you’re on a diet, you don’t want to think about anything else. All you can think about is food. Now I feel comfortable. I’m not dieting; I enjoy wrestling and I’m managing to do well at it."