A TOUCHE FOR THE NATIONAL TEAM

The World Wrestling Championship held in Hungary was a nightmare for Azerbaijani sportsmen. After churning out new champions for several years in a row, the national the team of Azerbaijan returned home without gold medals. The national teams in freestyle, women's and Greco-Roman wrestling won only four medals - two silver and two bronze medals.

Of these, two medals were won by Greco-Roman wrestlers Saman Tahmasibi (silver) and Shalva Gadabadze (bronze), while another silver medal was won by freestyle wrestler Khetag Gazyumov and bronze - by a representative of the women's team Yulia Ratkevich.

At the last world wrestling championships, the Azerbaijani team won two gold medals.

For various reasons, this championship was not attended by the winners of the London Olympics, Togrul Asgarov and Sarif Sarifov, which also affected the medal standings.

Among the Greco-Roman wrestlers, apart from Saman Tahmasibi (weight class of 84 kg) and Shalva Gadabadze (96 kg), who won medals, we can highlight Orxan Ahmadov (55 kg) and Hasan Aliyev (60 kg).

Hasan Aliyev, scoring four wins in a row, encountered the Olympic champion from Russia, Islambek Albiyev, in the semi-finals. Although the Azerbaijani wrestler could overcome the strong opponent, his own mistakes prevented him from gaining the upper hand. In the fight for the bronze medal, Hasan Aliyev was weak-willed and took fifth place.

Meanwhile, Orxan Ahmadov finished the championship without a medal because of biased refereeing. After two victories at the start, Ahmadov encountered a Russian wrestler, who was favoured by the referees. As a result, he lost the fight. However, had Orxan been significantly stronger than his opponent, the referees would not have been able to do anything.

Other Azerbaijani wrestlers Kamran Mammadov, Zaur Huseynov and Rafiq Mehraliyev were not remembered by anything special.

Azerbaijani freestyle wrestlers performed even worse. The only exception was Khetag Gazyumov, while the remaining four athletes won in just two bouts. Once considered one of the leaders of the national team, Cabrayil Hasanov (74 kg) cannot find his style after changing his weight class. In Budapest, he lost to an Indian athlete one step away from the bronze medal.

Young wrestlers Yasar Aliyev (55 kg) and Agahuseyn Mustafayev (66 kg) were given a chance to gain a foothold in the national team, but they "successfully" failed it, losing the first fights.

Only Khetag Gazyumov, who beat athletes from Argentina, Poland, Kyrgyzstan and Russia on his way to the final, pleased us. In the final, Gazyumov faced Iranian wrestler Reza Yazdani - world champion in 2011. The Azerbaijani wrestler failed to overcome this strong athlete and contended himself only with the silver medal of the World Cup for the second time.

Khetag is considered one of the best foreign players in the national team - he was a world champion once and a champion of Europe three times. In addition, Gazyumov has silver medals of world championships and bronze medals of the Olympics in Beijing (2008) and London (2012).

Gazyumov hopes to take part in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Khetag is now 30 years old and is in great shape, but how the situation will change in three years is still not known.

In addition, Khetag can be replaced by Olympic champion Sarif Sarifov, who changed his weight class and will be performing in the same weight as Gazyumov (up to 96 kg). Sarifov's achievements are no less important - apart from the Olympic "gold", he also has a gold medal from the World Cup and two golds from the European Championship.

Compared with Gazyumov, Sarifov is younger - he is 24 years old. Sarifov needs time to adapt to the new weight. In any case, strong competition will be for the benefit of the Azerbaijani national team.

The women's national team represented by four athletes is remembered only by the bronze medal of Yuliya Ratkevich. The other athletes were in Budapest as tourists. The lack of gold medals in the national team despite the very good conditions created by the Wrestling Federation of Azerbaijan is very disappointing.

Although at the World Championships in Budapest the Azerbaijani national wrestling team participated without some of its leaders, many athletes also fell short of expectations. The fate of the losers must be decided by the coaches. In recent years, Azerbaijani wrestlers reached the heights in world arenas. To enhance and strengthen the image, one must change the composition and form a strong team capable of winning. We need to solve this problem before the next European and world championships.