WRESTLERS IN TIME TROUBLE

The world wrestling championship ended in Budapest. The national team of Azerbaijan finished the competition of the year with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals.

Greco-Roman wrestler, the last European champion Eldaniz Azizli won the only gold medal for the national team. Silver medals went to wrestlers Jabrail Hasanov and Maria Stadnik. Bronze medals were awarded to Irina Netreba and Greco-Roman style wrestler Rasul Junayev.

The national team secured the fifth place in the overall standings. The strongest team of the world was Russia with 13 medals (10 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze) followed by the teams of Japan and the US. Turkey became the fourth strongest team of the planet.

In comparison with the previous World Cup, Azerbaijan in the overall standings rose by four positions. Last year in Paris, our national team won only three medals and took the 9^th place. At that time, Azerbaijan was even behind its neighbours, Georgia and Armenia, which won two gold medals each. At the current championship, Georgia was the 9^th and Armenia, with only two bronze medals, was on the 26^th best.

Freestyle wrestling

Freestyle wrestling team of Azerbaijan led by Firdovsi Umudov has always pleased the fans with gold medals. This time it took the 9^th place - the strength of freestyle wrestlers was enough only for one medal. “We would like to have more medals, of course. But the World Cup is not an ordinary tournament. The strongest teams are fighting there. That's why winning the medals is already pleasing our athletes,” the head coach Firdovsi Umudov said.

According to Umudov, the lack of experience and self-confidence of four new members of the team also affected the final result. There were also injured wrestlers. "For example, Ali Hajiyev has not trained for almost a month. Until the last moment, his participation in the world championship was questionable. However, the three-time world champion, European champion was willing to take part at the competition. Starting from this year, he competes in the 65 kg category. I am sure that he will meet our expectations again. I was most upset by Sharifov and Alborov. Both of them showed a performance below their potential. Edisherashvili was injured in the first fight, which affected the meeting with the American wrestler, whom he had defeated twice before," F. Umudov said.

Our team had no luck with the drawing procedure either. "When the strongest teams get into the same basket, it's not good. The strongest wins anyway. This world championship was a lesson learnt for us," the national team's head coach said.

However, Umudov is optimistic. In the national team, they intend to analyse all the mistakes, increase discipline in the team and give a chance to the young generation of wrestlers. The management of the team has a lot of work. There is little time for reform. In 2019, the licensing competition for the Olympic Games in Tokyo begins. Therefore, it is necessary in the shortest possible time to gather strength and restore the former potential of the team.

Greco-Roman wrestling

One gold and one bronze medals in the Greco-Roman wrestling brought the national team of Azerbaijan 60 points and the 4^th place after the national teams of Russia, Hungary and Turkey. The Azerbaijani team failed to get extra 15 points necessary for the bronze cup. For comparison, in the last championship, our team took the 10^th place with 22 points. Therefore, the current performance of the team in the Greco-Roman wrestling deserves a satisfactory assessment.

Shaban Donat, head coach of the national Greco-Roman wrestling team, shared with us his analysis of the performance of our athletes at the World Championship: "I am happy that Eldaniz Azizli won the gold medal among the 55 kg athletes. We knew it would be difficult. We had to make some changes in a number of weight categories. Competitions were extremely tense. Our wrestlers confronted difficult opponents. The most important thing is to prepare well for the upcoming world championship in Kazakhstan in 2019 and to get qualified for the Olympic Games."

Donat also noted that some decisions of the arbitrators were controversial. “Nevertheless, we must become even stronger. This is a struggle. I think we could win two more medals. Referees made mistakes during the consoling meetings of Elvin Mursaliyev and Kamran Mamedov. Our team will get better. The adaptation process of the young wrestlers takes time. If we want to win the gold medal, we must forget about the judges and rivals. Next year there will be a lot of competition. But the main tournament is the World Championship in Astana. We want to go there with the best team, with the strongest athletes and achieve success,” said S. Donat.

Female wrestling

In the women's wrestling, Azerbaijan was the 10^th with two medals and 41 points after the national teams of Japan, China and the United States.

Maria Stadnik won the silver medal. The seven-time European champion, the winner of the I European Games and the IV Islamic Solidarity Games in the finals failed to overcome the Japanese athlete. After the final round, Stadnik admitted that the reason for her defeat was complacency.

At the last European Championship held in Daghestan in 2018, Azerbaijani national wrestling team won 18 medals (4 gold, 5 silver and 9 bronze medals). We were the second best team by the number of medals but the third best by their dignity, following Turkey.