MHSN

Here is my preview about freestyle draws but first I have to say we have less depth in freestyle comparing to Greco-Roman which means the level of competition is quite low ! makes harder to predict, but still there are some great wrestlers not qualified yet. 59kg I think in easier top half , the winner of Buruian-Atli match in first round will make it to Rio. can't see any other competition for them (maybe Ewald or the Chinese guy), Atli is slight favorite here. in bottom half we have two very good wrestlers Shuptar and Andreyev. both world medalist, I think the quota will be between them but still we have the Kyrgyz guy, Mejias, Metreveli and a guy from Uzbekistan I expect Turkey and Ukraine to qualify. 65kg we have 32 wrestlers here ! still the top half is still easier despite having 16 wrestlers in each half ! it's hard to pick a clear favorite here becuase there are 4-5 good (but not great) wrestlers there , Garcia (CAN), Perpelita (MDA), Bucur (ROU) and Habat (SLO) all have chances here and maybe the guy from Kyrgyzstan. Bucur has a clean path to the semifinal. still I think Garcia has more chance. we have Molinaro, Zhumagaziyev, Novachkov, Safaryan, Radulov, Nurykov and few more good wrestlers from Japan, France and Korea here. it's really hard to pick someone they are all at the same level. Novachkov might even got the quota if they disqualify the Ukrainian wrestlers. on other hand Radulov (UKR) is very good but he is probably not prepared as a last minute entry. Safaryan is a former world champion. I expect Canada and Belarus to qualify. 74kg out of remaining wrestlers, I see only Rashid Kurbanov as a serious medal treat in Rio and he is not here ! Uzbekistan is sending Abdurakhmanov (raised in USA , world bronze medalist) here, he is the top favorite in top half, have an easy path to quarterfinal probably against China, his semifinal will be probably against Ukraine or Germany, I consider Ukraine as the second favorite behind him. again there is no clear favorite in second half, but a bunch good wrestlers almost in the same level. Brzozowski, Sufiev, Ncube, Nagy, Friev, Grigoryan, even the new Belarus guy, beside all of them I'm curious to see this Uruguayan guy Palacio ! he is an American wrestler with Uruguay heritage. I won't surprise if he qualifies (still not a top favorite here) . really hard to pick one snce they are all at the same level. but I go with my favorite wrestler here , our Tajik friend. I expect Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to qualify. 86kg The biggest name here is a former world champion Aldatov. this is his last chance and I think he won't miss it.by saying that he still has some competition in top half. Ismanov in second round, Murtazaliev/Harth in Quarters and probably Ianulov (or Japan) in semifinal, I think Ianulov is the only real treat for him. he lost narrowly in Serbia. bottom half is much easier this time, wide open for everybody. I had to check the list so many times to pick one ! if Tagziev survives his first match he has an easy way to the semifinal (I have no idea about the Russian guy of France but his CV doesn't look good) in the lower quarter I see Korea, Latvia, even FInland and Romania with chance, Stefan (ROU) used to be a good wrestler but did nothing special recently. I expect Ukraine and South Korea to qualify. 97kg Only in this weight , I didn't have hard time to pick two wrestlers ! Khudelbulga has a dream draw in top half. nobody serious on his way to the semifinal and there he only has to beat India or Germany to make it. Shala of Albania also can make a surprise here, this Mongolia guy was terrible at home two weeks ago which makes me give chance to those guys as well. still he is the clear favorite. with Saritov around, this is useless to talk about the rest, he will qualify most probably, I think the only one who can challenge Saritov is Yanouksi, that will be a close mtch. I expect Mongolia and Romania to qualify. 125kg We have a very weird situation here, 3 wrestlers are here while they shouldn't ! Ukraine and Belarus qualified the weight before but they are still here (and still not clear who will qualify instead of them) Brazilian guy Jaoude also qualified in Greco-Roman but still he is trying his chance (which is an absolute ZERO) in freestyle they have a naturalized Armenian wrestler who will probably take his place in Greco-Roman. I won't surprise if they simply qualify all top 4 wrestlers here, so it's better for everybody to take bronze medal matches serious ! but if they want to give spot to someone Iliev of BUL deserved it more, but he is still here ! OK let's back to the competition without considering all these crazy things.we have some surprising names in top half, Saidov (BLR) and Krupnyakv (KGZ) !! both from Russia, both considered be a big name in 97kg, both once got banned for doping. Saidov was the biggest nobody ! I heard so many things about him and now he has to qualify the weight AGAIN for Belarus. we also have Chintoan and Matuhin here, plus Vivenes. in bottom half it will be between the new guy of Ukraine, Greece and Slovakia. and maybe Iliev. I expect Belarus and Ukraine to qualify again

Damn, I just found another one ! Belarus also has a rep at 125 ! Ibragim Saidov ! which means Jalilov also failed in Serbia ! both 125 finalists, which secures a quota for Iliev (BUL) here. I have to check if there are more

haha that will make a mess I just found another one ! they also have a rep at 65kg ! means Kvyatkovskyi also failed a test (apparently all 3 of them failed on Meldonium) again the Georgian guy who finished 3rd qualified later in Mongolia they have 3 options now 1) 5th place finish in Serbia, Arzoumanidis (GRE) 2) the Other bronze medalist in Serbia, Safaryan (ARM) 3) 4th place in Mongolia Novachkov (BUL) I wonder which one of these guys deserve it more ?! in 125kg case 1) 5th place finish in Serbia, Gagloev (SVK) 2) the Other bronze medalist in Serbia, Iliev ( BUL ) 3) 4th place in Mongolia , again Iliev ( BUL )

Interesting that Ukraine participated at 58kg despite winning the quota in Europe there is only one way to explain it, the girl failed the drug test but why Moldova is also wrestling here ? I think it's easy to find why, you know it's not a sure thing yet, still they have to test the B sample , hearing process etc, they couldn't deny Moldova's chance to be here, in case Ukrainian girl can survive the whole thing which is VERY unlikely. btw I took a look at men's draw (will write about it later) I see Ukraine has a representative at 125kg, which means Zaseev failed a drug test ! what they want to do with that ?!!! Ligeti who will qualify in his place, already qualified himself in Mongolia ?! maybe Iliev from Bulgaria (finished 4th in MGL) will qualify instead ?! or maybe they can give it to Gagloev (SVK) who finished 5th in Europe behind Ligeti (actually didn't show up in bronze medal match) , lol poor guy that's why you always have to wrestle. even in this non-important bronze medal matches, one day you will need that bronze medal !

Eisele lost fair and square but Hassler match was another story, this match was held right after Basar-Kudla semifinal which was also controversial, at the score of 1-1 all Turks in stadium were expecting a caution for Germany but surprisingly Refs did the right thing and gave the caution to the Turk, things got ugly and their fans even threw few things to the mat. after that match refs had no other option to give the next one to Turkey !! I don't say it was a clear robbery but at the score of 4-2, Hassler was attacking for the entire 2nd period , still no cauton for Ildem, one caution could help Hassler to win the match by a turn 4-4.

haha, for personal reasons, I don't like cheaters . let's not write the names the here. wow Sourian is flying today, destroyed the American guy 8-0 in the final in just 36 seconds !! in general he didn't wrestle more than 5 minutes today !

Yeah not bad at all, actually I'm happy at least two of my predictions came out wrong.

Yeah finally where was this Sourian last month ? You can see how much mental preparation matters in sport. Sourian was just a shadow of himself in Kazakhstan and Mongolia but here after getting so many positive energy from inside country he just showed his true face. even though I have to admit his plan A just worked well here, he teched all his opponents in almost a minute ! I don't know what would happen in second period. now he has 100 days to prepare himself, he is still the best by far technically but in wrestling you have to be in shape physically as well. also very thanks to Tsymbaliuk of Ukraine for beating the Israeli guy now for the very first time we can have a full men's team in wrestling, I know some people are probably surprised to hear that ! but Iran was never a super power in Greco-Roman, we just became good in recent years thanks to coach Bana.

Sourian had another quick 8-0 win in a minute against Germany, his plan A is working so far but most important the Israeli guy lost to Ukraine (the country of his origin) , man it was too nerve wrecking, Tsaryuk was leading 2-2 at some point and it was like he is going to win the match. now Sourian only hast to beat this Ukraine guy. on paper it doesn't look that hard. btw the live stream is terrible they can't do even this simple thing

oh yes they are totally different , there are some few rare examples of wrestlres switching styles , for example last year Bilyal Makhov won bronze in worlds in both styles but in general Greco-Roman is totally different thing, most attacks in freestyle are attacking to the leg which is illegal in Greco

^ That's not going to happen, yes that's true IOC recommended that long time ago back in 2004 if I'm not wrong but in general Greco-Roman is more popular around the world (not in my country though) specially in Europe. Lalovic (UWW president) himself is from Serbia, freestyle doesn't even exist in his country

And as expected the Egyptian guy from Bahrain didn't show up against Israel ! this is probably the only thing in common between Iran and this former part of Iran now called Bahrain !

nope nothing can beat Boxing but the difference is the judging isn't that easy in boxing which opens the door for so many corruption , while in wrestling it's not that hard. we have less problems in freestyle while in Greco-Roman there are still so many corruption because of not clear rules

Feel sorry for Roman Amoyan, got robbed against (guess who) Turkish wrestler. poor guy was attacking for the entire match but no caution for Turkey as expected

Well, only 16 seconds ! quick win by Chunayev. that's weird Etlinger wasn't aware of Chunayev's favorite technique and easily let him do it

And don't forget Kazakhstan, they even managed to buy athletes from professional buyers like Azerbaijan and Turkey Nijat Rahimov World Champion in weightlifting, or a taekwondo girl from Turkey who won the quota.

this one in Baku, one Grand Prix in Kazakhstan and a Masters competition, the last one doesn't probably matter since only top 16 can participate , which means we already know the list of qualified athletes after Kazakh Grand Prix

No chance for Caneva or other Italian male wrestlers except Timoncini. he had his chance in Mongolia, after winning 3 close matches (two of them just 1-1) he should qualify. but now I think he is tired and probably disappointed , I don't give him a big chance but he is not completely without chance . but he has to beat 4 wrestlers almost in his own level. his chance is something like 10-15%. btw Parisi was good in Mongolia and almost beat the Georgian (he was leading before I had to change the mat and didn't see how he lost ) but with this draw I don't give him any chance. and we in Iran hope your Manea do us a big favor and beat the Israeli guy in first round

Which means they registered two wrestlers to have this chance to pick one of them at the very last moment, Iran always do that, we had a last minute change in Mongolia (which did work actually and the guy qualified in 130kg) but at the end only one of them can participate. but you can register maximum 3 wrestlers for each weight.

WTF probably thinks Afghanistan doesn't deserve any help because of their cheating few years ago, Afghanistan used some overaged athletes in Youth competitions which easily detected by WTF and some of those guys got banned they gave a Wild Card to Afghanistan back in 2008 even when they qualified one athlete by merit.

that's probably misunderstanding, nobody can enter two wrestlers in one weight ! I mean Ohler beat Ildem in Serbia and the other Turk in Mongolia. I prefer to write about freestyle weights later after the draw but in Greco-Roman all of those 3 Germans have realistic chance to qualify. if Hassler is fit he is the favorite for the quota but there is one problem that all 3 of them have to beat Turkey ! Hassler's chance is better since he has only one serious competition in Ildem. (Ohler beat him easily but things are different in Istanbul) Kudla was my pick at 85, but first he has to beat Noumonvi in second round (Azizsir beat him in Mongolia) then Hrustanovic and probably Basar of Turkey. not an easy task at all, 4 or 5 wrestlers there are capable of qualify. The same story for Eisele , he has two tough matches to qualify, first against Cebi (the guy he beat easily in Mongolia) and then Starcevic. Turks are not that nice when they host, and this guy Cebi is a world champion. Turkey used to be a Greco-Roman power, and they are still good and dangerous but so far they qualified only and only 1 wrestler ! I can promise you they will do EVERYTHING possible to qualify as much as possible here. and in Greco-Roman (unlike freestyle) refs can do whatever they want.

I'm quite sure Saudi Arabia, Syria and most probably Lebanon, Iraq and few more countries don't let their athletes compete against Israel, you never saw it happen because they are not that good to compete outside of Asia. I think in countries like Jordan it depends on athlete himself, they don't force athletes to withdraw or compete. I said it before, even if you qualify, NOC has to confirm the quota , so it doesn't happen unless he gets permission for that. about media react I can guess such headlines "Sourian sacrifices his chance to defend the people of Palestine" what you said will be written in Persian media "outside of Iran" while inside Iran, you should know media are not completely free. there are few "red lines" for them and Israel is one of them. btw they usually don't even use the word "Israel" but the "Zionist Regime"

Tell me about it btw this is not just Iran, other middle eastern countries do the same , but they are just not good enough to cmpete in international competitions and you don't see them actually here we have a Bahrain vs Israel in first round of 98kg, the Bahrani guy is a former world champion from Egypt. I won't surprise if he withdraws tomorrow, he would wrestle if he was wrestling for his own Egypt but policies are different in Bahrain.

I hope so he is good, he is a former world junior bronze medalist, probably originally from Ukraine, I expect him to win against Italy but I don't expect him to beat Ukraine in quarterfinal, but this is not a sure thing, so I give him something like 20% to reach the semies. Sourian better first thinks about his first two opponents before the Israeli guy. Lizatovic is no joke, the German guy also can causes problems for him.

Yes, in sports like wrestling with direct one on one matches you never see an Iranian competing with Israel, at least in near future. doesn't matter where and when, even in Olympic final. usually when I receive the bracket, this the first thing I check.