PROOF OF CLASS

Brilliant performances by Azerbaijani wrestlers at the world championship in Denmark made it one of the most important sports events of the year. For the first time in its history, the team won 10 medals. Besides this, three athletes won gold medals. It is a truly unique achievement because, previously, we could not boast of winning the three most valuable World Cup medals at one time in any Olympic sport.

Unbending Farid

We would like to highlight the success of the "classic" Farid Mansurov (66 kg), who continually brings us pleasant surprises. In 2007 he returned in triumph to the sport after a whole string of injuries, with an outstanding display at the world championship in Baku. After that, there was failure at the Olympics in Beijing, further injury and a no less brilliant return to the mat. In Denmark, Farid was simply unstoppable, once again proving to sceptics that it is too early to write him off and he has not yet had his final say in wrestling. Mansurov is one of the few Azerbaijani sportsmen to succeed in defending the title he first won two years ago. After all, because of the Olympics, the World Cup was conducted last season exclusively among women, so the success of our athletes is doubly valuable.

Moreover, you can count with your fingers our athletes who have triumphed twice in a World Cup competition. Only the master of trap and skeet shooting Zemfira Meftahetdinova and weightlifter Nizami Pasayev spring to mind, so our Olympic champion has finally and irrevocably entered the ranks of the select. Farid now has to build up his form to maintain the standard and, at the same time, prepare himself mentally for the Olympics in London. It will be difficult to imagine the Games 2012 without Mansurov, or Maria Stadnik (48 kg), who became world champion for the first time in her career.

This sportswoman has taken quite some time to get this gold medal, winning at the European Championships, the World Youth Championship, and a bronze at the Olympics. But her victory in Denmark opened a new chapter in her career, because the Games 2008 are already part of history and now everything has to start anew. Maria developed into one of the top wrestlers within a short period of time and she has managed to retain that status. Certainly, competition is great, but Stadnik does not stand still, otherwise all her recent successes would have been impossible.

Our women's team in general deserves a special mention, taking into account the quality of their medals - two "golds" and one "silver". Yuliya Radkevich (59 kg) has also reached the summit. She returned from maternity leave and triumphantly confirmed her status as number one in the national team. Her success was noted even by the president of the Russian Wrestling Federation, Mikhail Mamiashvili: "Last year Radkevich became a mother and suffers from problems with her kidneys. I cannot say that she was the best from the technical point of view or had prepared better than others. Yuliya surpassed all her rivals by the power of her spirit and her will to win. In the final, Radkevich gave her all to break the resistance of an opponent from Poland. And she achieved success in the dying seconds of the bout. But even if Radkevich had lost, she would have had nothing to be ashamed of, because she gave everything on the mat."

But now Yuliya will carry far greater responsibility: it is one thing to win a title, but another to defend it. Moreover, her opponents will pay special attention to Yuliya from now on, so she will have quite a difficult time. But who said that it is easy to win "gold" at a World Cup? It is encouraging that the medals in women's wrestling are won not only by naturalised athletes, but also by home-grown ones. Thus, Sona Ahmadli (55 kg), who came from judo, made it to the finals at the World Cup, losing to the titled Japanese athlete Yoshida. In any case, this defeat is something of a victory. It is no accident that in the team event, our women took first place, which is highly significant.

"Freestylers" take off

The only team failing to get among the top medals was our national freestyle wrestling team, but there is a difference here. Three of our wrestlers - Zalimxan Huseynov (60 kg), Chamsulvara Chamsulvarayev (74 kg) and Khetag Gazyumov (96 kg) - fought in the finals, but failed to win. But even this result is very valuable and the wrestlers have all the facilities to get stronger and challenge for the top medals next year. Especially as this season has been truly successful for them - their victory in the team World Cup was followed by gold medals in Europe, and now they have "silver" from the World Championship. It is also worth mentioning the bronze of the promising newcomer Sarif Sarifov (84 kg). The trip to Denmark was a baptism of fire for the new team coach, Saypulla Absaidov, who may rightly put this contest down to his account.

At the same time, we should note the bronze medals of the "classics" Rovsan Bayramov (55 kg) and Vitaliy Rahimov (60 kg). For the latter the award was the first "global" one in his career. Compared with him, Rovsan is more experienced and had fought once in a World Cup final, taking second place. This time, he did not reach the final, but his "bronze" illustrates Bayramov's stability, and he may well develop on his success: especially as neither Rovsan nor Vitaliy have yet reached the main Olympic peak - "gold".

Meanwhile, the presidents of the International Wrestling Federation (FILA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Raphael Martinetti and Jacques Rogge, reached a provisional agreement to increase the number of Olympic medals for women's wrestling at the 2012 Games in London from four to seven and, very importantly, without reducing the number of medals for Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling. FILA currently has 18 sets of medals at the Olympics: seven for Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling and four for women's wrestling. But the pace of development in women's wrestling, which only appeared in the programme in 2004, has so impressed the IOC that Jacques Rogge accepted Raphael Martinetti's proposal to discuss an increase in its representation at the Olympics.

FILA proposed to the IOC an increase in Olympic medals for women's wrestling, but without an increase in the total number of athletes in all three types of wrestling at the Games, which would remain at 352. The number of participants in each of the current Olympic weight divisions will be reduced. It is expected that 126 athletes (18 in each category) will participate in the seven weight divisions in Greco-Roman wrestling and 76 (twelve in each category) in the seven weight divisions for women. Another six athletes will be the guaranteed minimum quota for the country hosting the Games. Ten Olympians will be named by the traditional tripartite commission comprising representatives of the IOC, the international federation and the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games.

Returning to the World Cup, we should note that it confirmed Azerbaijan as the main rival to Russia in the fight for gold medals. In any case, year by year the standings of our wrestlers on the world stage are getting stronger and the three gold medals from Denmark are eloquent proof. The Olympic cycle has just begun and only one year has passed since the last games, but the alignment of forces has already changed markedly. And now our wrestlers need to get stronger from tournament to tournament to confirm their title as the strongest. Of course, this is a big psychological responsibility, but the majority of our athletes have already acquired a winning psychology, which will help them in the future. All the conditions are there, taking into account this fantastic season for Azerbaijani wrestlers. We want to believe that this is only the beginning.