MHSN

I don't know how many people even read my previews. I had no intention to continue it but then it's better to finish when you start something. I make it very short this time 57 1) between Atli and Micic. the Serbian beat Atli last time but I think Atli will be slightly the favorite this time. Micic has 2 shots at the Olympic spot. his own match vs Atli and then Atli vs Sanayev in the semifinal. that's a pretty good chance even though I'm not going to pick him both matches are something like 60-40 against him. 2) Sanayev (or Artas Sanaa as his birth Russian name) no doubt. this is the dream draw and if he makes it to the final. one of these guys will win the quota luckily. 3) there are few big names here. Takahashi of Japan is my pick but then that American Fix is doing great recently. the Armenian kid is the Euro Champ at 61kg. he was amazing at the Euro but I don't know how he makes weight for 57kg. if he makes the weight properly he will be a big favorites. also never count India out in lighter weights. 4) as usual the 4th quarter is the toughest one. Uguev is the favorite but then we have European Games Champion Amiraslanov. Asian Games champion Bekhbayar, Asian Champion Atri from Iran, World bronze medalist Yutsenko, 3 times Asian finalists Kang of PRK + Andreyev. obviously Uguev is the first pick but I have hard time to pick another one for the repechage. my picks: 65 1) Bajrang, no doubt. and he will most probably bring one of these guys to the Olympics with himself. I see 5 or 6 wrestlers in the same level in that part. will be an interesting battle between them. 2) another easy quarter. I think it will be between Mongolia and Kazakhstan, no chance for the loser because the winner is going to lose to Bajrang in the semis 3) this is an OK draw, Khinch is the clear favorite but don't count the Hungarian Musuakev out (they just took him from Russia !) the Turkish guy is always seeded high but I don't think he can beat those 2 guys but there is a chance for him. 4) this is the worst possible draw for everybody in that quarter. only 67kg Greco was as bad as this. if I had to name 7 candidates for the gold medal. 5 of them are here (+ Bajrang and Khinch) Rashidov vs Aliyev in this first round will be the great. and the winner will get the World Champion Otoguro in the 3rd round. we also have Valdes and Retherford in this part of the draw. I see no chance for our youngster here. my picks:

Great news. Excellent and I see everybody is happy now. time for Iran to completely shut down Judo in the country. this is a lost cause anyway. and I'm sure Mr Mollaei will be happy about this and his former teammates will appreciate his "bravery". I was thinking what if Miresamaeili would have did the same 15 years ago in Athens. what Mollaei was doing in 2019 if there was no Judo at all ? cleaning restaurants maybe. that's exactly what he brings for the possible next judo generations. and btw this is not the first time. probably first time for an Olympic sport but it happened before in the Paralympics. Iran was banned something like 10-15 years in Goalball and 5 years in wheelchair basketball (from 2008 to 2013) for the same reason. and if people think this is a good idea , then Iran should be banned from the whole thing because it's not something decided by the poor Judo Federation. that would be good actually. because then I have no reason to spend my time here in this forum. thinking about it. I can start spending less time (or no time at all) in the forum from now.

they will. they decided about it today. there will be 5 winners from 5 different regions + the best ranked Asian player in May 2020 ranking. all regional competitions will be held in Thailand.

we have a very young wrestler in this weight. 18 if I'm not wrong. I didn't expect anything here but after I saw the top half. anybody could at least win the quota from the top half. but well I'm getting used to it . we will see if we finally get a "good draw" in next two days or not. btw I will bore you guys with more details about these 2 men's freestyle weights later today. top half is easy to predict though for both weights.

first ever World Championship medal for Saudi Arabia ! and a surprising silver in CJ for Iran. actually he could win more (silver or bronze in total) if he was a bit better in Snatch. now time for Om Yun-chol to break some world records

UWW tried to promote our Swedish friend Alex Kessidis by posting a video of him in his instagram but instead they revealed him as a cheater ! personally I didn't notice that during the match. and since it happened so fast I think even the Armenian wrestler didn't notice that. if you see this .he is clearly using his right knee to push the Armenian guy for the throw. what's amazing is he did exactly the same thing in another match (against Iran) he is such a smart wrestler. but I really hope from now on they focus more on his throws. he has a hubby of using his leg.

I want to take a quick look for the Asian qualified wrestlers I'm listing the favorites in order (I mean in order in my own opinion) for the 2 Asian quotas. 60: Qualified: favorites: 1. 2. 3. 4. 67: Qualified: none favorites: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. * I assumed Japan is going to use Ota in this weight. without him they will be behind IRN. KGZ and CHN 77: Qualified: favorites: 1. 2. 3. 4. * Kyrgyz top guy Makhmudov was absent here , I assume he will be available for the Asian qualifiers, without him they will be behind IND. 87: Qualified: favorites: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 97: Qualified: none favorites: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 130: Qualified: favorites: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. of course it's possible with blind draw to see all of these guys in one side and someone else takes the quota from the "easier" half. something interesting about Japan is as much as they are VERY strong in first 3 weights (only one of them is Olympic weight) they are very weak in other weights. that's not surprising in general but the difference is bigger than ever nowadays. I didn't even list their 77kg as a chance for the quota. and I think only for Korea (77) and Iran (87 and 97) the Olympic quota looks almost guaranteed (nothing is guaranteed but you know what I mean) also I just noticed South Korea (despite having 2 former World Champs and 2 other World medalists in their squad) failed to win a single quota here !!!!

I'm not sure this time. because he needs a total result here to keep himself in race for the Olympic quota. none of the Iranian weightlifters participated anywhere in past 4 months and for the reason I explained in previous page they all need a result here. I think only this time Rostami will probably think about having a result first. yeah that's indeed a good news. nobody expects anything from these girls. this is just the start. if I'm not wrong that leaves only Wrestling and Boxing as Olympic sports don't exist for women in Iran. Boxing is also possible in future. (I didn't count Modern Pentathlon which doesn't exist at all here)

once someone from IOC asked this from UWW officials (during the meeting about keeping wrestling at the Olympics) it was Carol Huynh if I'm not wrong and the answer was "we never received any kind of interest from women about Greco-Roman" women's GR simply doesn't exist as far as I know. apparently because that needs upper body strength ! (don't laugh at me that's what some "experts" claim)

I was checking the entries and based on the entries Iran is not favorite to win any medal here !! even though I know we can't count too much on the entries. when IWF announced the Qualification rules and limited countries like Iran to 2 quotas (for each gender) that was like a disaster but now we are getting close to the Olympics, we have a hard time to find 2 competitive weightlifters for the Olympics. of course we could qualify 4 but only 1 or 2 will be competitive for a medal. Moradi's injury was a big blow but that was a good news for the stupid jerk, Kianoush Rostami ! he is still training alone with his brother, even when he had to join the national team for the last few days , he and his brother were training in the other side of the hall !! nobody knows how fit he is. another bomb out won't surprise me. but with Moradi's injury now he has a realistic chance to win the quota. and beside this will be the first time for Iran to have a female weightlifter in World Senior Championships. they are still very weak. interestingly one of them is in Group A (with the lowest entry) alongside an Israeli weightlifter (won't be a problem though)

they also didn't mark the Friendship tournament in Japan but then those results are counted here https://www.iwf.net/qualif/menu/ that makes me believe more mistakes are possible and Africa Games being counted simply makes sense. that's a major competition.

That's true. but Greco-Roman is more popular in Europe. that's the only reason Greco-Roman is still in the Olympics. the number of participants is usually much more for Greco-Roman. more countries can win medal in GR. while freestyle is between ex-soviet countries and 4-5 more. they are changing rules year by year to make GR "interesting" for non-wrestling community audience. but then they award medals to wrestlers like that guy for doing nothing. that doesn't encourage wrestlers to be more active. just be a very good defender and then you can count on your luck (or your influence on the refs) to win something.

that's really sad but if African Games is counted (which makes sense) at least you have more time to find a solution. something like 6-7 months.

and I got 4 correctly for 60kg 2 for 77kg: and 5 for 130: 11 out of 18. total of 23 out of 36. not that bad

he is wrong. you can check the IWF website yourself. he is listed for 3 events all 3 of them in the 1st window. you need 6 in general but at least 1 in each window. he needs 3 more. at least 1 in each remaining window plus one more. unless he had been participated in another event and IWF is not updated yet , and as I showed you one example. IWF website is not 100% accurate about the Olympic Qualification events. for example maybe All-African Games is counted ?!

well done UWW. by promoting someone like Heiki "doing nothing" Nabi they are inviting IOC to kick wrestling out of the Olympics. another medal for him by doing absolutely nothing. this time it looked like everything was well planed by all 3 refs. Nabi had to do nothing which is his specialty just for info the score was 8-0 but Nabi did no shit , all of them were cautions

oh I forgot you are eligible for the Mediterranean Cup. they know that's impossible. USA allows it only for the World Championship (because they have to) and after torturing our athletes for something like 4-5 months. (they have to go several times to the USA embassy in Turkey) that's how it is. better not wasting time and money. they already announced Moradi is going to Switzerland. PS: I had to contact several people in Iran WL federation to make sure they know the rules. fortunately they knew.

@thepharoah it seems the IWF calendar isn't completely accurate ! for example they didn't list the Friendship tournament in Tokyo (Olympic test event) as an Olympic qualification event but then I see they count those results here https://www.iwf.net/qualif/menu/ there might be other eligible events as well. but when I checked the situation for Mohamed Ihab, he had 3 events in the first period. but still nothing in the 2nd period (may-October 2019). he has to participate in one of those 2 events in USA or SUI, even a poor result will be enough for him.

that will be enough to keep them alive. we have the same problem with our Olympic champion Sohrab Moradi, because of a surgery he missed this WCh, and if you see most of those October events are continental events. only 2 events in USA and Switzerland are possible. you have to participate in at least one of them. (and since USA won't let the Iranians to participate, Switzerland is the only chance for Moradi, even with one hand, he has to participate)

Are u sure about that ? because I think you are wrong the 2nd window is from 1 May to 31 October 2019. there are/were only limited number of IWF-santioned events in this period of time. I took a quick look and didn't see any Egyptian weightlifter in those events. only these events are held and will be held in that period of time, per IWF calendar June IWF Junior World Championships British International Open Pan-American Junior Championships July Oceania Senior & Junior Championships August Cup of the Blue Swords (Germany) September African Junior Championships IWF World Championships October San Diego International Open 12th Mediterranean Cup Nordic Senior Championships European Junior Championships European U23 Championships Asian Junior Championships Asian Youth Championships 49th "Challenge 210" (Switzerland) I don't have the result of that August event in Germany but I think your athletes didn't participate in other events so far. (no idea about the African Junior but that's not good enough for Mohamed Ihab for example)

oh that's terrible. and beside that. your athletes "need" to participate in an IWF-sanctioned event in this 6-month period. if they don't , they can't participate at the Olympics no matter what. suspension or not.

NOC, some countries like Iran and Russia don't care who win the quota. the trial process for the Olympics is the same as any other year.

No. he retired after a doping ban. our federation also won't let him wrestle anywhere even if he changes his mind. when you are banned for doping you have to pay something to the UWW as penalty (I don't know how much) and our federation has a rule that the wrestler himself has to pay that. he didn't though.

and final quotas in Greco-Roman go to 60: 77: 130: Iran, Russia. Germany and Uzbekistan are the most successful nations in GR with 3 quotas.

Olympic quotas so far (from top half, usually the luckier guys) 60: 77: 130: Nabi actually scored himself (and didn't win just by cautions) to win the quota. that's surprising. and Geraei had a comeback against Cataraga (who is a great athlete I have to admit) to make it 3 quotas for Iran. that was nerve wrecking . from 0-5 to 5-5. winning 3 quotas is a good result. I didn't expect more at all but when I'm looking back. we could win 5 actually. we got bad calls at 87 and 97. and I can say both of them got robbed in their last matches for the quota. we have nobody in the final but still our young team did well here. we have 3 in the bronze medal match later today. I hope for 2 medals.