WRESTLERS BACK IN SHAPE

The Azerbaijani national Greco-Roman, freestyle and female wrestling teams won a total of 20 medals at the FILA (International Wrestling Federa-tion) Grand Prix, which has just ended at the Palace of Sports in Baku.  The tournament gave the team of coaches an opportunity not only to test the leading wrestlers in action, but also to identify promising youth who can have their say at the upcoming world championship in Denmark.

Leaders in the shade

If the number of medals is the yardstick, our freestyle wrestlers gave the strongest showing, winning 8 of them.  Xaqan Suleymanov (66 kg) was the real discovery of the tournament:  he went all the way to the finals, eventually losing to Ukrainian Andrey Stadnik.  However, our sportsman wrestled on equal terms with the incumbent European champion and winner of the silver medal at the Beijing Olympics, ending the first round in a draw (1-1), and losing only in the second round.  So, Xaqan staked a serious claim to a place in the first team and intensified the rivalry there.  Especially as Cabrail Hasanov also lost to Stadnik in the finals of the 2009 European Championship in Vilnius.

On the other hand, the team is still in preparatory mode, and many leading sportsmen are not yet in optimal shape.  This is understandable, after the busy and victorious schedule in the first half of the season when, after winning the World Cup for teams in Tehran, our freestyle wrestlers won the team classification at Euro-2009.  This why many of the sportsmen who made recent successes possible, like Camsulvar Camsulvarayev (74 kg), Novruz Temrezov (84 kg), Xetag Gazyumov (96 kg) and Ali Isayev (120 kg) did not live up to their status as favourites at the Grand-Prix, although Ali was close to a gold medal, after winning the first round of the decisive match with American Tervel Dlagnev 0-1.  However, the American won the second and third rounds.  He managed to defeat Isayev twice in two days:  a friendly match between the home side and the US national team was organized before the Grand-Prix, which our team won 4-3, but Ali lost to Dlagnev.

At the same time, Zalimxan Guseynov (60) and Namiq Sevdimov (55 kg) did win gold medals, and the latter's victory was quite symbolic.  After all, in the 55kg weight category he became successor to the famous Olympic champion Namiq Abdullayev, whose farewell ceremony was held during the Grand-Prix.  He won many trophies for Azerbaijani freestyle wrestling in the international arena.  Abdullayev was a dynamo of sorts for the team.  But his remaining dream was never realised - despite his victories at the Olympic Games and European championships, he never became world champion, although he wrestled many times in the finals of the world championships.  Well, perhaps his disciples will win the title if Namiq chooses a coaching career.  Going back to Sevdimov, however, it has to be said that, from this point of view, he had to bear an additional psychological burden; he managed it well and defeated the Japanese Yasuhiro Inabo in the final (1-0, 3-0).

Anyway, there still is time before the world championship in Denmark, so the coaches will have an opportunity to test the potential candidates for the national team and decide on its composition.  The title of champions of Europe requires special performances from the freestyle wrestlers, and they have to handle this.  It is good, though, that there is competition for places in the national team - this can only be an additional incentive for the sportsmen who continue training and honing their skills.

Farid Mansurov reminds fans about himself

As for the women's team, it must be noted that it has become a force to be reckoned with in the international arena.  And it is not only team leader Maria Stadnik who is producing good results - she was third at the Grand-Prix.  Others also performed well.  For example, Zumrud Qurbanhaciyeva (67 kg), winner of the silver medal at Euro-2009, won the team's only gold medal in Baku, in the final match with the Russian Yuliya Bartnovskaya (1-0, 2-0).  Yuliya Radkevich, who lost in the final to the Japanese Matsukashe Chikako (0-2, 0-6), was just one step short of the gold medal.  But that did not come as a surprise, precisely because the Japanese women's team has been the undisputed leader in recent years.  At grand-prix tournaments, confrontations between the Japanese and Azerbaijani women usually end to our disadvantage.  In particular, Stadnik's hopes of reaching the finals were thwarted by Makiko Sakamato, but the bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics proved herself in the match for third place.  Elvira Mursalova, bronze medal winner at the world championship (59 kg), again took bronze, so our team did fulfil its minimum task.

The tournament was in a certain sense a defining one for the Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestlers, given that the Otar Tatishvili recently became head coach.  The athletes have a lot of work to do because they came back from Europe with just one bronze medal, which is why the coaches decided to test practically all our competitive athletes.  And the results were quite curious:  let us take the weight category of 74 kg, in which Rafiq Huseynov won the gold medal and confirmed his status.  In the final match, he defeated Dzhahangir Muminov (1-0, 1-0) from Uzbekistan, and he can now count on a place in the first team.  Our leaders, Olympic silver medallists Rovsan Bayramov (55 kg) and Vitaliy Rahimov, are not in their best shape yet, which is why they did not come up to expectations at the Grand-Prix and were third and second respectively.

On the other hand, Athens Olympics champion Farid Mansurov (66 kg) proved himself once again.  Despite the fact that our Greco-Roman wrestler periodically suffers from injury, he keeps proving that he is the best.  This happened at the Grand-Prix, too, where Farid won the match with Biabangard Afshin from Iran by a fall, delighting the local public.  Mansurov clearly demonstrated that it is too early to write him off and that he can try to win a place at the Olympics in 2012.  At any rate, he is already in quite good shape and can compete well at the next world championship.

Revelations from FILA president

It should be mentioned that next year's Grand-Prix will again be organized in Baku.  FILA head Rafael Martinetti admitted that the tournament has a special status because it is held right after the European championship and before the world championship.  "We have organized the tournament for the fourth time and while, initially, the leading athletes did not show any particular interest, it now has much higher status.  In addition, an appearance at the Grand-Prix is an opportunity to collect rating points.  This is why I consider the tournament the third most important, after the world and European championships," said Martinetti.

The FILA president made an overture towards the national federation by saying that it is the only organization to achieve major success in the international arena in such a short period of time.  "I have been in wrestling for 35 years, starting as a referee, and now head the international federation.  But I do not remember a federation, apart from the Azerbaijani federation, achieving such considerable success in a matter of a few years.  The victory of the freestyle wrestlers at the World Cup and European championship and the 12 medals won at the continent's junior championship in Tbilisi all testify to that," Martinetti said.

Discussing the frequent changes to the rules of wrestling, the FILA president noted that no changes are planned until 2012:  "We have done a lot of work on the rules; in particular, there were many questions about 'blind' draws.  We plan to publish new rules which will remain in force for many years."  The FILA head also admitted that Baku surprises him more and more every time he arrives here.  "Although I come here every year, it surprises me every time.  I think that in a few years, your city will be as beautiful as Rio," said the honoured guest.