Wrestling UWW European Championships 2018

[DaniSRB 899]

1 minute ago, phelps said:

 

I know the Italian team (it's been already posted in the Italian National Thread)...

 

however, as I said, I fixed the problem (at least with Chrome, so I can surf that website)...

oops, sorry

 

i see few naturalized athletes. How Italian people react on it? I mean Italy is big country, does really need to naturalize athlete in any sport?

[phelps 7,667]

2 ore fa, DaniSRB ha scritto:

oops, sorry

 

i see few naturalized athletes. How Italian people react on it? I mean Italy is big country, does really need to naturalize athlete in any sport?

 

it depends on how relevant is the discipline and how "famous" are those athletes...

 

here in Italy Wrestling almost doesn't exists for the sports media...and doesn't exists at all for the "common" people...so, basically nobody knows anything about the sport, the athletes and doesn't care where they come from...

 

in general, naturalized athletes are welcome in all the sports (mainly because most sports are almost forgotten except for those 15 days once every 4 years) but football (you know, football is always something special and different here in Italy...it's not just a sport), especially if they win and show a true feeling for their new Country (in this sense, Fiona May was one of the most beloved athletes in the last 25 years, since she was truly committed with Italy -she still lives here and doesn't have any intention to eave- she's nice and gentle, well educated...I mean, someone to be proud of in any form)...

 

more in general, it's not that we go around the world asking people from other Countries to represent Italy (I don't remember a single time it happened)...

the fact is that many foreign athletes come to Italy to train and live throughout their career...and sometimes it happens that they find a husband/wife and establish here to live their everyday life...

and in some cases thay also ask Italy if they can compete for us because our team is better organized and our life standard (even in sports career) is better than what they had in their previous Nation...

but this doesn't always happen...there are quite a few world class athletes who train in Italy or have Italian husbands/wives/boyfriends/girfriends and still represent their Native Land...

just to name one, Kim Polling, who won the European title in Judo a couple of days ago, lives in Turin and her boyfriend (almost husband) is Italian, but she still starts for the Netherlands (and always will do it, especially now that she has fixed her relationship with the Dutch federation)...

[DaniSRB 899]

24 minutes ago, phelps said:

 

it depends on how relevant is the discipline and how "famous" are those athletes...

 

here in Italy Wrestling almost doesn't exists for the sports media...and doesn't exists at all for the "common" people...so, basically nobody knows anything about the sport, the athletes and doesn't care where they come from...

 

in general, naturalized athletes are welcome in all the sports (mainly because most sports are almost forgotten except for those 15 days once every 4 years) but football (you know, football is always something special and different here in Italy...it's not just a sport), especially if they win and show a true feeling for their new Country (in this sense, Fiona May was one of the most beloved athletes in the last 25 years, since she was truly committed with Italy -she still lives here and doesn't have any intention to eave- she's nice and gentle, well educated...I mean, someone to be proud of in any form)...

 

more in general, it's not that we go around the world asking people from other Countries to represent Italy (I don't remember a single time it happened)...

the fact is that many foreign athletes come to Italy to train and live throughout their career...and sometimes it happens that they find a husband/wife and establish here to live their everyday life...

and in some cases thay also ask Italy if they can compete for us because our team is better organized and our life standard (even in sports career) is better than what they had in their previous Nation...

but this doesn't always happen...there are quite a few world class athletes who train in Italy or have Italian husbands/wives/boyfriends/girfriends and still represent their Native Land...

just to name one, Kim Polling, who won the European title in Judo a couple of days ago, lives in Turin and her boyfriend (almost husband) is Italian, but she still starts for the Netherlands (and always will do it, especially now that she has fixed her relationship with the Dutch federation)...

i understand

 

but for example cases in water polo and volleyball i simply can not understand......best league in the world, great coaches, infrastructure and yet naturalized athletes

 

if that happen with big countries then noone can say anything to Azerbaijan or Qatar

 

Serbia is middle developed country in sport, but i don't support naturalization, but as you said, most sports are followed in every 4 years

[phelps 7,667]

3 ore fa, DaniSRB ha scritto:

i understand

 

but for example cases in water polo and volleyball i simply can not understand......best league in the world, great coaches, infrastructure and yet naturalized athletes

 

if that happen with big countries then noone can say anything to Azerbaijan or Qatar

 

Serbia is middle developed country in sport, but i don't support naturalization, but as you said, most sports are followed in every 4 years

 

well, when it comes to team sports it's quite different, because there you have some club teams that try and get some players naturalized to make their team stronger and more competitive against the richer teams that can buy all the best native players (or to try to win games in the european competitions)...

so, it explains the light of the Molinas, Echeniques getting the Italian passport (just to talk about waterpolo)...

but you also have to consider that in many cases Italy is the heritage Country of those guys, the place where their ancestors come from...so it's quite normal if they want to get back to their origins...

on the other hand, we laso had situations like the great Tibor Benedek's..he used to play in Italy, he got married here in Italy with an Italian woman, but continued to play for his native Hungary all of his life...

 

p.s. in the volleyball case, don't get fooled by the names...the only actually naturalized player in our National team is Juantorena (and as you might know, Cuban are very used to escape from their Country and go play for a Western one...at least for now...maybe after the end of the Castro family dictatorship something will change, but it will take a lot of years, I guess)...

people like Zytsev, Kovac, Travica and many others are sons of old foreign players who did play in the Italian championship many years ago, but they were born here or just came to Italy when they were 5 or 6 years young kids and then lived all of their life here (therefore they were formed by the Italian volleyball system and it's perfectly normal if they play for our team)...

[DaniSRB 899]

2 hours ago, phelps said:

 

well, when it comes to team sports it's quite different, because there you have some club teams that try and get some players naturalized to make their team stronger and more competitive against the richer teams that can buy all the best native players (or to try to win games in the european competitions)...

so, it explains the light of the Molinas, Echeniques getting the Italian passport (just to talk about waterpolo)...

but you also have to consider that in many cases Italy is the heritage Country of those guys, the place where their ancestors come from...so it's quite normal if they want to get back to their origins...

on the other hand, we laso had situations like the great Tibor Benedek's..he used to play in Italy, he got married here in Italy with an Italian woman, but continued to play for his native Hungary all of his life...

 

p.s. in the volleyball case, don't get fooled by the names...the only actually naturalized player in our National team is Juantorena (and as you might know, Cuban are very used to escape from their Country and go play for a Western one...at least for now...maybe after the end of the Castro family dictatorship something will change, but it will take a lot of years, I guess)...

people like Zytsev, Kovac, Travica and many others are sons of old foreign players who did play in the Italian championship many years ago, but they were born here or just came to Italy when they were 5 or 6 years young kids and then lived all of their life here (therefore they were formed by the Italian volleyball system and it's perfectly normal if they play for our team)...

i thought on the cases you mentioned.....especially Echeniques who firstly played for Argentina, than Spain, now Italy

[DaniSRB 899]

So is there draw for day 1?

[intoronto 5,629]

A lot of "Western" countries see athletes from less developed nations move there by choice. Nothing to do with the country enticing them (for the most part) 

[MHSN 3,613]

24 minutes ago, DaniSRB said:

So is there draw for day 1?

 

Yep. check the UWW website.  only 8 wrestlers for 55kg !! maybe having that weight wasn't really a good idea.

 

PS: UWW's new version is a bit hard to work with. not user friendly. I would like to have a PDF version

[DaniSRB 899]

5 minutes ago, MHSN said:

 

Yep. check the UWW website.  only 8 wrestlers for 55kg !! maybe having that weight wasn't really a good idea.

 

PS: UWW's new version is a bit hard to work with. not user friendly. I would like to have a PDF version

can you give us some preview of day one?

[MHSN 3,613]

Just now, DaniSRB said:

can you give us some preview of day one?

 

well hard to say. wrestling is a different sport with this new weight-in rules. I don't know how much these guys cut to make the weight, that's a big big factor.

 

55; I only know the Azeri guy Azizli. even the Russian guy is new for me ( a bit lazy to check their junior records) so I guess Azizli is my pick here

63, again I'm going with the Azeri guy Mammadov. even though he has Russia in 2nd round. we have Olympic medalist Berge from Norway on top half but I don't really consider him a great wrestler. he is just a tough guy.

77; the great Roman Vlasov is back. he has his dark horse Mursaliyev in top half but I think Vlasov will beat him this time. the bottom half will be between Lorincz and Nemes. Lorincz is good in par-terre (which is a new addition per new rules) Nemes has to be careful not getting a caution, Lorincz can score big if you give him the chance being on top. Nemes has a tough draw actually he has to beat Etlinger and then Kilov before even meeting Lorincz

87; I think the 1st round match between Abdesalam and Kobliashvili is the key match for the top half. the bottom half looks much tougher with both last year world medalists Kudla and Basar. the Russian guy. and also Lorincz. for whatever reason Kudla had full support of the referes in 2016 Olympics and 2017 worlds gifting him an Olympic bronze and world silver. he won medals by doing actually nothing. the world champion Basar is also not a great wrestler. he just took his chance last year. I believe Russia and Hungary will go to the final from the bottom half. The Egyptian guy Abdusalam is my pick for the gold. that's a bold prediction I know.

130; Kayaalp will win the gold 90%, I'm surprised Georgia didn't send their World Junior Champion Phartanidze. even though Kajaia is still favorite for making to the final and have the honor of losing to Kayaalp in the final. and thanks God. no Heiki Nabi after zillion years of watching him boring everybody to death and winning matches by doing NOTHING.