WRESTLERS' RECORD

The Azerbaijani national wrestling team has had a very successful European Championship in Tampere, Finland, breaking the team's existing record. Our team has never before won seven medals in three different disciplines, of which two were gold, one was silver and four were bronze. In addition, the women's team left both freestyle and Greco-Roman teams behind both in the quality and quantity of its medals.

The highest ambition

It is hard to overestimate the team's success. And the victory of Mariya Stadnik (48 kilograms) testifies once again that the issue of foreign sportspeople should be dealt with selectively: after all, not all of them can live up to expectations. In a relatively short period of time, Stadnik has travelled a long way from winning an Olympic place at the World Championship held in Baku to becoming European champion. Although some experts were somewhat surprised when Mariya won her trip to Beijing, her performance at Euro-2008 proved that she is a great wrestler. In fact, Stadnik is the first naturalized foreigner sportsperson to win not only an Olympic ticket, but also a gold medal at Euro-2008. Mariya has proved that she is good enough to compete for an Olympic medal. At any rate, watching her rapid progress, you can see that she is capable of setting herself the maximum goal and achieving it.

It is curious that the women's team had already won three Olympic places at the World Championship, leaving behind the male freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestlers. Back then, this result seemed incredible, but no one would be surprised now if the women's team added to its presence at the Olympics, given that two more qualifying tournaments lie ahead.

Speaking about qualification, we should mention that both freestyle and Greco-Roman teams earned one place each.  Emin Azizov's performance merits special attention, especially as Euro-2008 was his first major competition. The athlete did not let his team down; he won his medal and now can start training for the Olympics. There is, however, one "but" here: the place is not issued to an individual sportsman, but to the category, so Emin still has to prove his right to join the Olympic team.  Camsulvar Camsulvarayev has already secured his place, for example, by winning his second bronze medal at the continental championship and demonstrating the quality of his wrestling.

The chief coach of the national team, Magomedxan Aratsilov, was clearly not bluffing when he said, before leaving for Finland, that his team was capable of winning multiple medals and vying for the top positions. His words came true; furthermore, Azizov, as well as Novruz Temrezov (84 kilograms), C. Camsulvarayev and Ali Isayev (120 kilograms) had good chances of making it to the finals, but fell just one step short. They all made the most of the consolation rounds, won bronze medals and made it into the top three. In the consolation rounds, Temrezov defeated Vadim Laliyev of Armenia in brilliant style and Azizov won his round against another sportsman from that country, Zikayr Hovanesyan.

Only Olympic medal

Going back to C. Camsulvarayev (74 kilograms); he has maintained a remarkable consistency. At last year's Euro-2007, as at the qualifying World Championship in Baku, he won bronze medals. The wrestler decided not to part with tradition and defeated a Ukrainian wrestler in the consolation round. It is curious that his path to the finals of all these competitions was blocked by the winner, Makhach Murtazaliyev, who prevailed in Tampere too. However, our wrestler did not have the extra incentive of winning a place in Beijing, which he had already achieved at last year's World Championship, thereby proving again to the coaching team that he was the best in his weight category.

At the same time, Xetaq Gazyumov (96 kilograms) had a chance of qualifying, but he lost an intense match to the prominent Gadzhimurat Gatsalov. He, for his part, lost his semi-final match to an opponent from Georgia, so our wrestler lost his chance of winning the bronze medal. However, the worst result in the team was recorded by Allahverdi Veliyev (60 kilograms), who lost his very first fight to Viorel Etko, who was not the strongest man in the British team. However, this failure by the newcomer to the national team was to a certain extent predictable, because head coach Magomedxan Aratsilov had noted before the team's departure that the under 60 kilograms weight category seemed to be the most problematic, so there was some room for experiment.

Rovsan Bayramov, Greco-Roman wrestler in the 55-kilogram category, merits special mention; he proved that he is a true sportsman by winning the European Championship for the second time in a row. It is also quite clear that his victory was a fair one: he won his match against Nazir Mankiyev of Russian and left Roman Amoyan of Armenia with the silver medal in the final. It has to be said that, after the last year's World Championship, Rovsan was not in good shape and won only the bronze medal in the national championship. But Bayramov proved that he can concentrate at the decisive moment and achieve the results expected of him. Incidentally, after his success in Tampere, many specialists expect the Azerbaijani wrestler to win the Olympic medal.

The European Championship was marked by the return to the international arena of Husamettin Racabov (66 kilograms), who was disqualified for two years after traces of banned substances were found in his body. The wrestler, who has sorely missed big-time victories, started the competition with two victories: against Mark Bock of Austria and Aleksandar Maksimovic of Serbia. But in the quarter-final match Racabov lost to Armen Vardanyan, competing for Ukraine. And although he had a chance of winning the bronze, he lost it to Mukhran Machutadze of Georgia.

Other news

A preliminary decision was reached at the championship to establish the Association of Wrestling Federations of the CIS and Baltic Countries. "In actual fact, the very idea of an organization which would safeguard and lobby for the interests of the former Soviet republics in the wrestling world was suggested by Russia as early as 1998," said Georgiy Bryusov, Russian Wrestling Federation director for sports. "We even wrote the regulations and enlisted the support of effectively all potential participants. But the promising idea failed to reach the implementation phase back then, for various reasons. At the same time, it has become increasingly clear every year that our countries need a unified policy in the context of initiatives from the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles, as well as mutual support in promoting our interests and lobbying for the promotion of representatives of our federations into the European and international wrestling bodies. This idea was discussed in Tampere and received the approval of effectively all the heads of the wrestling federations of the CIS and Baltic countries. The concluding document will be written and sent out for suggestions and proposals in the near future. We plan to convene a conference at which the establishment of the association will be officially announced, even before the Olympic Games in Beijing."

Georgiy Bryusov also discussed the kind of issues the association will deal with. "Let me reiterate, the main idea is to have a common position and policy, which will be formulated and announced in advance. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Russia is the historical centre of the wrestling world and that many of our wrestlers emigrate to wrestle for other countries. At present, Russian sportsmen wrestle for more than 20 countries. This process has to systematised, so that the transfer process is civilized and mutually beneficial.  Another example: the idea of nominating Vilnius as the venue for the 2009 European Championship needs our lobbying and active support. The issue of holding a CIS championship for the wrestling sports is currently under discussion. There are many ideas, and even more work to do," Bryusov concluded.

In short, the European championship was clearly successful for the Azerbaijani national team, which can now set new goals and objectives for the future. Namely, they have to vie for Olympic medals in Beijing, which will be not so easy to win.