MHSN

looks like after all 18 teams are participating here, Guatemala and Dominican Republic had to withdraw because half of their squads tested positive for COVID before even boarding the plane.

Russia finished the Greco-Roman comeptition with 5 gold medals, Iran, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Belarus and Turkey also won 1 gold medal Russia obviously won the team title, Iran finished 2nd before Azerbaijan for Iran it was an OK tournament with 1 gold, 1 silver and 5 bronze medals but I was hoping/expecting for more gold medals.

and gold for Marcel Sterkenburg that was a well deserved gold medal . one step better than his brother

Russia dominated the first day of Greco finals. winning 3 gold medals by beating our Norwegian friend and also one of Sterkenburg brothers. Iran and Turkey won the remaining gold medals. not a bad day for Iran, 1 gold and 3 bronze but still nothing compared to our freestyle team's results

ask UWW maybe for the same reason that bodyweights are different in FS and GR. this is their desperate try to show the world these are two completely different things ! former UWW president once suggested having Greco wrestlers being naked on upper body to "attract" the audience also scoring is harder in Greco in general (specially in higher senior levels) maybe that was another reason

@heywoodu the other Sterkenburg also made it to the final probably even better than his brother

looks like a very good day for Sterkenburg brothers, the other one Marcel beat Iran and Russia and makes it to the semifinal from what I saw so far, they both can go home with the gold medal

our wrestler managed to last a bit longer I will definitely follow this guy in future events. his performance in SF and QF was too good to be true but in junior level coaches are not into scouting or analyzing the opponents. now Russian coaches have one day to have a plan for him. we will see if he can execute his throwing techniques tomorrow or not. but he is surely a possible future star.

I saw him winning an international senior event in Poland last year. so that wasn't a huge huge surprise for me yes tomorrow. finals will start 6pm (local time in Ufa) it will be the 4th final of the day. so we will have 3 finals + 4 bronze medal matches + 2 medal ceremony before this one. probably somewhere around 7:30 pm local time. and I have to add the star of the day was from Norway, Exauce Mukubu, he dominated and destroyed all of his opponents (including an Iranian) . a very fun wrestler to watch

maybe a brother ? it's Tyrone Sterkenburg

@heywoodu will have a finalist in Greco-Roman wrestling. that's a bit surprising I guess. and he had a tough draw. beating Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on his way to the final

in absence of Japan, USA dominated the first day of women's finals winning 3 gold medals, Russia and Belarus won the remaining 2 gold medals

yes he already won some international notable senior medals. he was also 30 seconds away from making the Olympic team at the age of 18 but lost our 57 trials in the last seconds. we will see what he can do in the World Championship in Norway. lots of expectations I was curious to see what he can do against Ravinder. our lower weights wrestlers usually struggle against the toughness of Indian wrestlers. even Amouzad struggled at first but then changed tactic and scored few points.

the Iranian Firouzpour is considered the next best thing here. (he and our 61kg guy), he is a senior level wrestler already, he would probably win a medal in Tokyo. unlucky for him we have our best senior wrestler in this weight. I don't want to get into technical details but the way Firouzpour wrestles. (by controlling hands and using his underhook) he can dominate certain type of wrestlers. it doesn't mean they are weak, this is just a very bad matchup for guys like Magamadov.

just watched the race, yeah that looked very painful. that was a mistake trying to continue while feeling pain. I know nothing more, they only reported his injury.

3 out of 4 in today finals for Iran. which means 5 gold medals in total. US won 3 and Russia won the remaining 2. can't remember the last time Iran winning half gold medals in a junior world championship (if it ever happened) BUT it was an experienced team, 4 of these gold medals were totally expected. only 125kg was a complete surprise.

I don't think they are in danger "right now" (and by right now, I mean NOW, nobody knows about tomorrow) Taliban tries to look nice, they won't do anything super crazy for now. one of their guys even had an interview with a female host in a local TV. (this probably sounds pretty normal to you but this is way above Taliban's standards) I try to think positive, maybe they are smarter this time but still from what I hear from people who knows Taliban better than me (I mean people with first hand experiences), most of them believe this is just the start, they will do their normal Taliban thing when they settle. so yes if I was a female athlete in Afghanistan I would leave the country when I still have the chance. but it's not as easy as that. Yousufi was probably in a big danger, she was their only female athlete in past 2 Olympics, and they knew her very well but she was born in Iran, she had a "home" to go. most of them don't. this probably explains how Afghan female athletes feel right now, the "world" told them to be brave and the same world abandoned them. most athletes wish to be famous, to become famous. but right now I guess nobody wants to be a famous athlete in Afghanistan. https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/afghanistan-soccer-cry-for-help-amid-government-collapse-1.6142728

well actually he already made the senior team for the 2021 Worlds. we had a very very complicated trial system for that tournament in weights our seniors failed before they simply gave the spot to the best junior wrestler (if they meet certain conditions) per those rules 3 of our junior wrestlers already made the senior team, Nokhodi at 79kg is one of them. 61kg and 65kg too. (even though our 65kg wrestlers here suck big time, they have to make a change) also 57kg and 70kg guys will have a wrestle-off to make the senior team.

It was a good afternoon for Iran, winning 2 gold and 1 bronze medals plus sending 4 wrestlers to the final for the next day beating Russian 3 times today and securing the team title. this was an "experienced" junior team, half of them were in our senior competitions already so it was expected to get good results here. 5 of these guys are still in race to make the senior team in 2021 World Championships in Norway. a summary of the day, 2 gold for Iran, 2 for Russia and 1 for USA next day finalists: 61: Amouzad vs Ravinder 74: O'Toole vs Kuanyshbay 86: Firouzpour vs Magamadov 92: Hajiloueian vs Elam 125: Akbarpour vs Gevorgyan

and to makes things more interesting, Karavus had the leg and was about to score his last point for a superiority win but then that 4pts throw happened which changed everything. Russia also won the 2nd gold but this will be their last men's freestyle gold medal. surprisingly they have nobody in the final for the next day

today finals 57: Bagavudinov vs Karavus 65: Bayramov vs Mamedov 70: Gadzhiev vs Elahi 79: Nokhodi vs Ashirov 97: Polatci vs Amos

wow I can't believe I wrote that 5 days ago, it feels like 2 years ago no chance, they already withdrew from the Paralympics. and those girls should be careful for their lives. (if they already didn't leave the country) their Olympics female flagbearer Kimia Yousufi already fled to Iran. (where she born and grew up) Taliban "claims" they are different this time but a wise person doesn't trust them at all. I highly doubt we will see Afghan female athletes anymore (and most probably even male athletes)

World Junior Wrestling Championship started today in Ufa, Russia https://uww.org/event/world-championships-54

this is amazing sometimes how people believe whatever they read. first I have to say I'm really ashamed of what Iranian regime did here, they gave legitimacy to Taliban by inviting them to Tehran to "negotiate" while this group is still considered as terrorist by their own list. people still remember what Taliban did to Iranian diplomats in 1998. Iran almost went to war because of that. but Iran wasn't the first one taking pics with Taliban giving them legitimacy, that was Mike Pompeo. (and that was exactly when Taliban won the war) and while Iran has/had some influence in Afghanistan that's mostly culturally. Iran could not play a major role. unless they wanted to send troops and fight with Taliban. that was possible and probably not "that" hard for Iran but they stupidly thought they can manage living with Taliban next to our borders. and I have to say some stupid officials here just want US troops out of the region, Taliban is more "manageable" for them and again, Iran will be in lots of trouble in future, I assume none of you guys know that something like 3 million Afghan refugees are living in Iran. some of them even born in Iran. all of them (or their parents) fled Afghanistan when Taliban took over for the first time. the number was much higher but lots of them came back after the fall of Taliban in 2001. I assume lots of them (plus a lot more) will cross the borders again. and the current Iran can't handle its own people, let alone millions of refugees, it will be a disaster. and I assume with Taliban in charge there will be more drugs coming through our borders, another problem Iran has to deal with.

of course it's true, there are lots of similar videos on social media. that's more like "end of the world" movies I have access to some Afghan TV channels. most of them are still on air, but no music, no women, no movies. they are still showing cricket though