European Wrestling Championships starts today, Abdulrashid Sadulaev gunning for 6th gold, Watch it LIVE on WrestlingTV.in
The European Wrestling Championship starts today in Rome as the best wrestlers from all over Europe will battle it out for the continental supremacy. The biggest of all will be the reigning world and Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev of Russia.
The Russian Tank is on the verge of locking up the №1 seed at the Olympic Games if he completes his journey to a sixth European title in as many tries.
Sadulaev will have to get through a loaded pool of top-10 talent to improve on his perfect 21–0 European record. The three top-ten ranked wrestlers tasked with stopping ‘The Russian Tank” from summiting to the top of the European podium for the sixth time are №4 Magomedgadji NUROV (MKD), №6 Elizbar ODIKADZE (GEO) and №9 Nicolai CEBAN (MDA).
Sadualev heads into the European Championships with at least one career win over the three and has outscored them by a combined 61–0 in their previous seven meetings.
Top-20 Freestyle Entries at 97kg
№4 Magomedgadji NUROV (MKD) — 25 points
№6 Elizbar ODIKADZE (GEO) — 20 points
№9 Nicolai CEBAN (MDA) — 16 points
№12 Murazi MCHEDLIDZE (UKR) — 14 points
№14 Abraham CONYEDO RUANO (ITA) — 12 points
№15 Pavel OLEJNYIK (HUN) — 12 points
Two-time World Champions Chamizo and Gazimagomedov Entered at 74kg
A last-second change to the Russian lineup jeopardized a potential 74kg matchup between a pair of two-time world champions. Luckily for wrestling fans, Russia’s depth at the weight allowed them to replace №1 Zaurbek SIDAKOV with Magomedrasul GAZIMAGOMEDOV.
That last-minute lineup change preserved the likelihood of Frank CHAMIZO (ITA) meeting a fellow two-time world champion in Rome.
Chamizo won the pairs only other meeting, 11–5, at the 2017 Ali Aliev Tournament. But this time around, there’s much more at stake for both guys, especially with it being an Olympic year. For Chamizo, a European title on home soil will push him to the top of the world rankings.
He’s ranked second in the world with 40 points. He’ll gain the two-point advantage over Sidakov if he were to win the 22-point gold medal in Rome.
Harutyunyan Moving Back up to 61kg to Challenge Lomtazde
Arsen HARUTYUNYAN of Armenia downed Beka LOMTADZE of Georgia in an unforgettable 28-point shootout and stole the European gold medal from the eventual 61kg world champion. The young Armenian fell behind 8–0 midway through the opening period, but outscored Lomtadze 17–3 and claimed his first continental title.