Wrestling 2020 Discussion Thread

[MHSN 3,613]

I was in terrible mood in past few days but watching MH Mohammadian today really cheered me up. he destroyed everybody today including the Olympic Champion, World U23 Champion, European Silver medalist, World Bronze medalist and another guy who finished 5th in Worlds this year. Mohammadian destroyed all of them without giving up a single point. it seems we have a medal favorite in Tokyo at this weight finally. and I don't think Sadulaev is a sure gold medal winner anymore from what we saw today this Mohammadian isn't completely without a chance against the Russian tank.

 

Amir Hossein Zare also won the gold but the field was much weaker at 125kg. he had one tough match against the biggest guy he will ever wrestle Bilyal Makhov ! that was a tough match, Zare won 5-3. he is just 19 and he is already beating multiple World Champions.

 

if both Zare and Mohammadian make the Olympics team, consider we also have the great Yazdani at 86kg. all of a sudden our freestyle team is not that weak anymore !

[phelps 7,664]

Matteo Pellicone Tournament (Ostia, ITA)

 

Final Day Recap

 

 

men's Freestyle Wrestling

 

-57kg
Gold: Thomas Patrick Gilman
Silver: Joseph Daniel Colon
Bronze: Liu Minghu & Stevan Andria Micic

-61kg (Round Robin tournament, only 4 starters)
Gold: Kumar Ravi
Silver: Nurislam Sanayev
Bronze: Nurbolat Abdualiyev

-65kg
Gold: Bajrang
Silver: John Michael Oliver
Bronze: Selahattin Kilicsallayan & Zain Allen Retherford

-74kg
Gold: Kyle Douglas Dake
Silver: Soner Demirtas
Bronze: Fazli Eryilmaz & Daniyar Kaisanov

-79kg (Round Robin tournament, only 3 starters)
Gold: Vasyl Mykhailov
Silver: Ahmedkhan Tembotov
Bronze: Carmelo Lumia

-86kg
Gold: Zahid Valencia
Silver: Alexander David Dieringer
Bronze: James Patrick Downey III & Fatih Erdin

 

-70kg and -92kg not contested

[JoshMartini007 2,533]

I just noticed the Oceania wrestling championship was cancelled. This means they won't be eligible to compete at the African/Oceania qualification event (unless they change the rules)

[MHSN 3,613]

Entries for European Championships

https://unitedworldwrestling.org/article/european-championship-entries

 

looks like some big names (who didn't qualify already) preferred to focus on the Olympic qualifiers. but results here will be important for the OQT seeding.

 

but another important thing, for Russia freestyle squad, this tournament acts as "trials" for 4 of their wrestlers, if they win the gold they will go to the Olympics for sure. Uguev (57), Rashidov (65), Sidakov (74) and Sadulaev (97). I'm sure they know it will be much easier to win the European Championships here instead of winning the Russian trials ! except for Sadulaev who can beat anybody easily, for the rest there are some very good Russian wrestlers waiting for them at home.

[Federer91 2,728]

Almost a full team (27 out of 30 categories), which hasn't been seen in a while. After the disappointing 2019, it looks like our federation and wrestlers are throwing everything for the Olympic qualifiers. It is still not certain, which wrestlers are going for the OQT, with a few names potentially switching categories. The nationals were more serious than usual and the Euro here is the general rehearsal.

 

Former leaders like Vladimir Dubov and Ivo Angelov didn't even make the team. Borislav Novachkov is back after trying MMA in the US. Biliyana Dudova will make her comeback after the suicide attempt last year. Out of everyone in the trials i was most impressed with Georgi Vangelov. The guy has real potential and i'm praying he finally has a breakthrough on the big stage, because we haven't had a top rank male freestyle wrestler in ages....  

 

 

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by Federer91

[MHSN 3,613]

today the best thing I could find to watch was Pan-American Wrestling Championships today was first day of Greco and Pan-Am countries are much weaker in Greco comparing to freestyle. so the level wasn't great

 

only few days before the OQT that was still interesting for me to see some of those wrestlers (registered for OQT) in the list, even though some of them just registered and then withdrew (just to be eligible for the OQT) that was really disappointing to see only 2 wrestlers in two of non-Olympic weights (55 and 72) and nobody at 63kg ! (probably just one from USA and they cancelled the event) I understand this is the Olympic year but wrestling isn't only and only about Olympics. (apparently that's the case for most countries in that continent)

 

3 weights were interesting for me, 67kg just to see Ismael Borrero , this guy is really hard to stop, I know the level was poor here but he is an all-arounder , he will be strong favorite for the gold in Tokyo.

97kg was the most interesting with all 4 favorites for quota entering, Rosillo pinned Hancock in group stage but then Hancock teched him in the final with two back to back front headlock throws Mejia and Perez are also not that bad but I can't see any of them upset Hancock and Rosillo in AQT.

 

about 130kg, I don't know how Cuba is capable of produce such great wrestlers at super heavyweight, they have the great Lopez, and that guy Pino who had to switch to freestyle. another guy Acosta who won a world medal for Chile ! after all of them today still had another guy who manhandled Adam Coon in the final

[intoronto 5,629]

https://torontosun.com/sports/other-sports/scarborough-wrestler-jevon-balfour-has-his-olympic-dream-pulled-out-from-under-him

 

@MHSN

 

What do you think about this?

[MHSN 3,613]

16 minutes ago, intoronto said:

https://torontosun.com/sports/other-sports/scarborough-wrestler-jevon-balfour-has-his-olympic-dream-pulled-out-from-under-him

 

@MHSN

 

What do you think about this?

 

that's weird, never saw a wrestler with goggles, I think goggles don't have sharp edges so it's probably no problem wearing them, but then UWW doesn't want any possible trouble in future, so it was probably easier for them rejecting any "new idea" like this.

 

poor guy, I'm sure he feels he got robbed of his chance.

[heywoodu 14,954]

On 12/03/2020 at 00:50, intoronto said:

https://torontosun.com/sports/other-sports/scarborough-wrestler-jevon-balfour-has-his-olympic-dream-pulled-out-from-under-him

 

@MHSN

 

What do you think about this?

 

This article sort of makes it sound like Wrestling Canada is screwing him, but when reading more carefully, it's UWW only that is actually screwing him and Wrestling Canada that has tried what they could to help him (without success, because in the end it's not up to them)?

[phelps 7,664]

@MHSN

finally, we have some official news about Shamil Kudiiamagomedov...

and it's not good news at all...

after the 2018 European Champs, he sustained a really bad injury in training and underwent surgery to his hip...

unfortunately, he hasn't fully recovered yet...and our coach Lucio Caneva also said that the problem is really serious and he's not sure at all that Shamil can ever get back to 100% and continue his pro wrestling career...

so, most likely Italy lost one of their best weapons even before they could truly take advantage of his switch to our Nation...

by the way, the most important thing of them all is that Shamil can at least recover from that injury so to have a fully normal life...good luck to him...