ALL OF EUROPE AT OUR FEET

Azerbaijan's national wrestling team has established a record for the number of medals it won at the European championship in Vilnius. Altogether, representatives of freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's wrestling won nine medals in the Lithuanian capital: five of them gold. In view of the quality of the precious metal, this is indeed a unique achievement, so the European championship opened a new chapter in the history of the sport in Azerbaijan.

"Freestylers" cause a sensation

The main heroes on the Lithuanian mat were the "fre-estylers", who ascended the podium four times. They had quite serious reasons to expect a successful performance at Euro-2009. The national team had already won the World Cup in Tehran this year, gaining a brilliant victory over the host team in the final, increasing the sportsmen's confidence. Thus the freestyle wrestlers went to Lithuania as favourites, intending to compete with Russia's traditionally strong team. And they succeeded. Moreover, our team took first place in the championship team events, outdoing their closest rivals by 20 points.

If we talk about personalities, the pace in this harvest was set by Ali Isayev (120 kg), who has made tangible progress over the recent period. In the World Cup final his duel with an Iranian brought final victory to the team, while in a decisive match in Vilnius he beat the Armenian sportsman Ruslan Basiyev (0:0, 0:2). "In the last few years, I have always stopped one step short of the podium in world and European championships, or won only bronze. But I believe that if you proceed to your goal persistently and purposefully, you will definitely achieve it. This year I made a long-awaited breakthrough. In January, I failed to get a medal at the Yarygi tournament, although I beat Baxtiyar Ahmadov, the silver medal winner at the 2008 Olympics. Then my results began to improve. One month ago I won a decisive match in the final of the World Cup, helping the Azerbai-jani national team to beat the tournament hosts -Iran. All wrestling fans know very well what it is like to beat the Iranians on their home ground. This victory boosted my confidence in my strength. After this victory, everyone in Azerbaijan expected me to win at the European championship. I did not think about medals during the championship and simply prepared myself to encounter every opponent. The final match against Basiyev was very complicated. At the beginning of the duel I was nervous, which is why I lost the first period. In the second period lots were cast and they were in favour of my opponent. I don't remember what I was thinking about at the time, but I did not panic. Basiyev was not using his advantage very actively, and I managed to hurl him to the floor. After such a gift of fate, I had no way to lose the third period," Isayev said.

Isayev's drive for gold was supported by his teammates Chamsulvara Chamsulvarayev (74 kg), Zalimxan Huseynov (60 kg) and Khetag Gazyumov (96 kg). The latter two confronted Russians in the finals. The decisive duel between Huseynov and Adam Batyrov was quite tense. The fight was equal and the competitors had to settle scores over three periods. Our wrestler turned out to be slightly stronger and more agile, becoming Europe's "trendsetter" for the next year in the 60kg category.

Khetag Gazyumov dealt an even more tangible blow to the pride of one of the main favourites of the contest, beating Georgiy Ketoyev in the final. Our wrestler won the first period (1:0), while Ketoyev took the second period by the same score. However, Khetag turned out to be stronger in the third period - 2:0. Thus, Gazyumov fully lived up to the trust of the coaches and became European champion for the first time in his career. "I had quite a bit of trouble with Ketoyev. Although he was transferred to my weight category quite recently, none of the wrestlers in the 96kg category compare with him in physical strength. It was not easy to withstand the constant pressure. But Georgiy lacked speed and I tried to take advantage of that. It worked, since I beat him. The performance of the Azerbaijani national team at this championship has been triumphant and I am very glad that I gained another victory for the team. I think Georgiy carried much greater responsibility into the match than I did. Has Azerbaijan ever beaten Russia in the team events before?!" asked Gazyumov.

In a word, Malik Tedeyev, the Russian national team coach, admitted that Azerbaijan's national team now leads European wrestling. In his opinion, the European championship showed that the leadership has changed in Europe. "During the final between Ketoyev and Gazyumov, I was ready to explode," Tedeyev said in an interview with the official website of the Russian wrestling federation. "Both wrestlers are my students and I have been working with them for many years. They practice in the same gym and know each other very well. It would be wrong if I acted as the second of one of them, and that's why I watched it from the stands."

Our other wrestlers also gave excellent performances. In the 66kg weight category Cabrayil Hasanov put up worthy resistance to the second Beijing Olympics champion, Andrey Stadnik of Ukraine, in the final match. Only his lack of experience prevented our young athlete from gaining a victory - he won the silver medal. Novruz Temrezov (84 kg) won a bronze medal for our team. Only Yasar Aliyev stopped literally one step short of a medal at the European championship, losing the battle for third place to the Belarusian wrestler Vladimir Andreyev.

Stadnik wins again

Meanwhile, the European championship was notable for the fact that Maria Stadnik (48 kg) defended her title. Having won a gold medal last year, our sportswoman did not yield the palm in this championship either, beating Romania's Estera Dobre in the final - 6:0, 7:0. Several years ago, no-one even thought that our country could achieve such tangible success in women's wrestling; however, our team has won two medals in the last two European championships. Moreover, Stadnik is now seen as one of the main contenders for the highest prize at the London Olympics, which is quite something. It is notable that despite her status as outright leader, the team is not wholly dependent on Maria. Specifically, Zumrud Qurbanhaciyeva (67 kg) showed her worth in Lithuania. She only lost to Yekaterina Burmistrova in the final.

Against this background, the "haul" of the Greco-Roman wrestlers in Lithuania was more than modest - only Shalva Gadabadze took third place (84 kg). Rovsan Bayramov (55 kg) went to Vilnius as a two-time European champion, but failed to win a place on the podium for the third time. His performance at the tournament was halted in the quarterfinals when he was beaten by Bulgarian Aleksandr Kostadinov (1:3 and 3:3), who failed to make it into the final, automatically depriving Rovsan of his chance to try his luck in the consolation fights.

At the same time, the Athens Olympic champion, Mansurov (74 kg), had a chance of third place, but he failed to take it. During the quarterfinals, he lost to Russia's Ambako Vashadze (0:1, 0:1) who reached the final. In the fight for bronze, he lost to Georgia's Manuchar Chkhadavia (0:1, 1:1 and 0:1). In any case, the result in Europe was not the main point for Farid, because he is now making himself familiar with the new 74kg category and needs time to "get a feel" for it. Besides, Mansurov has only recently recovered from injury and has not yet regained top form.

Considering the performance of the Azerbaijani national team as a whole at Euro-2009, it was certainly successful. For example, the "freestylers" are already on top form, and their latest results show that they can take on more serious competition at the world championship in Denmark. The "classics" are still in a process of creative research, however, the team's potential is quite high and the team only has to "fire a shot". As for women's wrestling: here we can also count on improvements in the results, especially as Stadnik has not yet won medals at a world championship. Let's hope this is only for the time being…