Wrestling UWW European Championships 2019

[merlinsbeard 22]

Well, great success for the freestyle team of Turkey. We were pretty close to winning the teams and as MHSN pointed out it is a rare thing to see Russia in the second place. We just lost with 6 points, but Bölükbaşı would not have been enough anyway. I congratulate the team and the coaches but I wonder why Soner Demirtaş (74kg) was not on the team. He is the last European Champion (after defeating Chamizo in the semi-final). If he had been on the team and won at least a medal, we would have taken the first place.

 

Anyway, good tournament so far. Taha was quite dominant against the Georgian, it is good to see his on his feet strong again.

[MHSN 3,661]

interesting tournament, 3 golds for Turkey and Azerbaijan each, 2 for Russia. 1 for Armenia and Italy. to me the star of the competition was that Armenian kid Harutyunyan. he is already one of my favorite wrestlers only if he improves his non-existent defense he can dominate the world for years.

 

I was waiting for the last match of the competition but it was very one-sided for Akgul. Geno looked in a terrible shape, he barely even made it to the final and final was too easy for Akgul.

 

Azerbaijan was also impressive, they sent almost all of their top wrestlers (maybe just minus Aliyev) to Takhti Cup a month ago and they were not that good, Hassanov and Sharifov lost to average Iranian wrestlers but they were impressive here, specially grandpa Sharifov. if it wasn't for Azarshakib they could even challenge Russia and Turkey for the team title.

 

PS: team title usually doesn't matter much in individual sports but in this sport in wrestling top nations like Russia, Turkey, Iran, USA, Azerbaijan usually care A LOT about it. I even saw sometimes they lose intentionally to hurt their rivals. (I mean beating your opponent in first round but losing in semifinal to eliminate him and not putting him back in repechage) even though in current point system you better go for the gold because now they award much more points for gold and silver.

[MHSN 3,661]

  On 4/10/2019 at 6:12 PM, merlinsbeard said:

Well, great success for the freestyle team of Turkey. We were pretty close to winning the teams and as MHSN pointed out it is a rare thing to see Russia in the second place. We just lost with 6 points, but Bölükbaşı would not have been enough anyway. I congratulate the team and the coaches but I wonder why Soner Demirtaş (74kg) was not on the team. He is the last European Champion (after defeating Chamizo in the semi-final). If he had been on the team and won at least a medal, we would have taken the first place.

 

Anyway, good tournament so far. Taha was quite dominant against the Georgian, it is good to see his on his feet strong again.

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yeah that was my mis-calculation, Turkey was needed both 92kg bronze and Khizriev losing the bronze for the title. and we knew Khizriev wasn't losing to Chintoan.

 

both Demirtas and Gor were in Dan Kolov tournament in Bulgaria. both in the same bracket, Gor won the bronze so probably that won him the spot. even though I watched them both against Hosseinkhani, the difference was very small . Demirtas lost narrowly to him by cautions and Gor beat him in last seconds. I would still pick Demirtas but he also isn't in good shape recently. (he lost to the same wrestler Kentchadze in the 2018 Worlds)

[phelps 7,862]

  On 4/10/2019 at 6:32 PM, MHSN said:

interesting tournament, 3 golds for Turkey and Azerbaijan each, 2 for Russia. 1 for Armenia and Italy. to me the star of the competition was that Armenian kid Harutyunyan. he is already one of my favorite wrestlers only if he improves his non-existent defense he can dominate the world for years.

 

I was waiting for the last match of the competition but it was very one-sided for Akgul. Geno looked in a terrible shape, he barely even made it to the final and final was too easy for Akgul.

 

Azerbaijan was also impressive, they sent almost all of their top wrestlers (maybe just minus Aliyev) to Takhti Cup a month ago and they were not that good, Hassanov and Sharifov lost to average Iranian wrestlers but they were impressive here, specially grandpa Sharifov. if it wasn't for Azarshakib they could even challenge Russia and Turkey for the team title.

 

PS: team title usually doesn't matter much in individual sports but in this sport in wrestling top nations like Russia, Turkey, Iran, USA, Azerbaijan usually care A LOT about it. I even saw sometimes they lose intentionally to hurt their rivals. (I mean beating your opponent in first round but losing in semifinal to eliminate him and not putting him back in repechage) even though in current point system you better go for the gold because now they award much more points for gold and silver.

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I saw Petriashvili yesterday and he almost lost to Khotsianivskyi...I think he's also carrying some kind of injury, he just can't be that bad only because of poor shape...

 

and Harutyunyan was like a flash in the dark...one of the most exciting wrestler I saw for quite a while...today's final against Lomtadze left me speechless...

 

for what concerns Frank...well, today he looked in a better shape than yesterday, but I fear he was more Khadjiev being sloppy rather than him being outstanding...

still, 3rd European Gold medal in 3 different weight classes for Frank...and this is definitely a big achievement...I don't think there are many wrestlers with such record...

now let's see how he shows up in Astana, where he has at least to earn his spot for the Olympic Games...and it could be quite complicated if the draw isn't good (I don't think he's going to take part in the next ranking series tournaments and therefore probably he won't be among the top seeded wrestlers at the world champs)...

[phelps 7,862]

Today's Medallists Recap

 

men's freestyle, -61kg
Gold: Arsen Harutyunyan
Silver: Beka Lomtadze
Bronze: Recep Topal & Randy Adrian Vock

men's freestyle, -74kg
Gold: Frank Chamizo Marquez
Silver: Zelimkhan Khadjiev
Bronze: Avtandil Kentchadze & Timur Bizhoev

men's freestyle, -86kg
Gold: Vladislav Valiev
Silver: Piotr Ianulov
Bronze: Ali Shabanau & Fatih Erdin

men's freestyle, -92kg
Gold: Sharif Sharifov
Silver: Zbigniew Mateusz Baranowski
Bronze: Istvan Vereb & Irakli Mtsituri

men's freestyle, -125kg
Gold: Taha Akgul
Silver: Geno Petriashvili
Bronze: Oleksandr Khotsianivskyi & Anzor Khizriev

[phelps 7,862]

women's wrestling, Tomorrow's Gold Medal matches

-50kg: Oksana Livach vs Miglena Georgieva Selishka

-55kg: Iryna Husyak vs Evelina Georgieva Nikolova

-59kg: Svetlana Lipatova vs Bilyana Zhivkova Dudova

-68kg: Adela Hanzlickova vs Alla Cherkasova

-76kg: Martina Kuenz vs Yasemin Adar

 

[Quasit 865]

  On 4/10/2019 at 6:32 PM, MHSN said:

PS: team title usually doesn't matter much in individual sports but in this sport in wrestling top nations like Russia, Turkey, Iran, USA, Azerbaijan usually care A LOT about it. I even saw sometimes they lose intentionally to hurt their rivals. (I mean beating your opponent in first round but losing in semifinal to eliminate him and not putting him back in repechage) even though in current point system you better go for the gold because now they award much more points for gold and silver.

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In my opinion, there should be a proper team event for a "team title" to have a meaning.

[MHSN 3,661]

  On 4/10/2019 at 6:59 PM, phelps said:

 

I saw Petriashvili yesterday and he almost lost to Khotsianivskyi...I think he's also carrying some kind of injury, he just can't be that bad only because of poor shape...

 

and Harutyunyan was like a flash in the dark...one of the most exciting wrestler I saw for quite a while...today's final against Lomtadze left me speechless...

 

for what concerns Frank...well, today he looked in a better shape than yesterday, but I fear he was more Khadjiev being sloppy rather than him being outstanding...

still, 3rd European Gold medal in 3 different weight classes for Frank...and this is definitely a big achievement...I don't think there are many wrestlers with such record...

now let's see how he shows up in Astana, where he has at least to earn his spot for the Olympic Games...and it could be quite complicated if the draw isn't good (I don't think he's going to take part in the next ranking series tournaments and therefore probably he won't be among the top seeded wrestlers at the world champs)...

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don't know if he has an injury but if you notice the whole Georgian team was really bad here. even if they won few silver and bronze medals that was mostly because of lucky draw. for example Lomtadze only had to beat Switzerland and Macedonia for the silver medal !! maybe somewhere was wrong in their training program.

 

Chamizo looked very confident in the final. I think only 1 or 2 wrestlers can beat him in the Worlds. but still a very bad draw can happen like last year where Burroughs, him and the Russian were all in the same side. even though I believe (and I have some facts to believe that ) 2018 World Championship wasn't really "random draw" if someone analyzes the brackets he can see some countries were exactly in the same place in the bracket for 3-4 weight classes. hard to believe that was just luck. I hope we have "real draw" in Astana, because this isn't just the World Champs but the Olympic Qualification. and even a 5th place finish matters. and since we have less quota this time (thanks to IOC) there are only 2 more chances left after this and only top 2 can qualify from other tournaments,

[MHSN 3,661]

  On 4/10/2019 at 7:56 PM, Quasit said:

In my opinion, there should be a proper team event for a "team title" to have a meaning.

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You mean having a team competition during the tournament ? I don't think so. wrestling was never like that. unlike Judo.

we have a "World Cup" which is for team competition but we never saw all top teams send all of their best wrestlers. usually only the host nation takes it very serious.

 

we have "team title" like that in other sports like Taekwondo and Weightlifting too. but people don't care much about them but in wrestling it was always traditionally important.

[zob79 190]

  On 4/10/2019 at 9:13 PM, MHSN said:

I hope we have "real draw" in Astana, because this isn't just the World Champs but the Olympic Qualification. and even a 5th place finish matters. and since we have less quota this time (thanks to IOC) there are only 2 more chances left after this and only top 2 can qualify from other tournaments

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Unfortunately, Astana is the last place on Earth where an honest draw would take place.

Regarding the European Champs, how would you rate the technical level of competition?