TWO MEDALS AND FIVE OLYMPIC PLACES

The Greco-Roman, freestyle and female wrestling world championships in Baku are now over. There were many unforgettable moments and fans witnessed interesting fights. Of course, we were mainly interested in the performance of the host team which made a huge effort, winning one gold and one bronze medal, and two places in the Beijing Olympics. Olympic champion Farid Mansurov (66 kg) can be rightfully called the hero of the contest as he became world champion for the first time in his life.

Double responsibility 

In order to understand the significance of this achievement, it is enough to remember that Azerbaijani wrestlers last won gold in the late 1980s when the famous Kamandar Macidov celebrated his victory. It took our country 20 years to find a new world champion, whose success has double value. Over the last few years, Farid has been recovering from a back injury, which everyone thought was the end of him. But with his wonderful wrestling, Mansurov proved that it was too early to write him off and that he is ready for new exploits. The words of the triple Olympic champion Aleksandr Karelin about our wrestler are especially pertinent: "I really like Farid's performance and his fine technique which bamboozles any opponent. It is always more difficult to perform at home as you are under more psychological pressure, especially as one of the most interested spectators was Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. But to Farid's credit, he overcame his inner nerves and made the Azerbaijani people extremely happy."

The sportsmen were fighting at the championship not only for awards, but also for Olympic places. According to the schedule, eight athletes in each weight category would get a place in Beijing, and while Mansurov managed this task, the other "classics" could not "fire" at home. It is especially annoying that Azerbaijan's best sportsman last year, Rovsan Bayramov (55 kg), took only 10th place, though he started the tournament by beating Armenia's representative, Roman Amoyan. However, Rovsan did not have the strength to get to the final, which surprised not only our coaches but also many coaches from other countries who were aware of his potential. "To be honest, I don't understand why Rovsan's performance was so weak. Maybe he was not in good shape, but I am sure that Bayramov is one of the main candidates for the Olympic medal," the chief coach of the Russian national team, Gogi Koguashvili, said. His Azerbaijani colleague Elcin Cafarov was also baffled. He admitted that he still could not understand how his protege managed to lose the consolation fight with Russia's Nazir Mankiyev literally seconds before the end. "Rovsan was under psychological pressure as he prepared for the fight against Amoyan, and I am glad that he got a grip on himself and won. However, Bayramov had a fight with the same Mankiyev at a Grand Prix in Poland where he gave his opponent no chance. But this is sport and you cannot predict the result in advance," Cafarov stressed.

Indeed, sport is somewhat unpredictable and even the greatest sportsmen sometimes drop out of the race in the early stages of a contest, failing to get to the final. A graphic example of this could be the performance of Olympic champion, Namiq Abdullayev (55 kg) who participated in the championship despite an arm injury. As a result, the athlete lost his first fight and had to forget about a gold medal until another time. At the same time, Camsulvara Camsulvarayev who won a bronze and a place in Beijing could not "fire" either. Russian freestyle wrestlers, who won six of the seven possible medals, had no match in the contest. "We have a very strong school which was founded in the USSR. At that time, the best members of the national team came mainly from the North Caucasus, and the situation has not changed now. If we do not get enough medals, our Greco-Roman wrestling team comes to our aid and vice-versa. We are single-minded, and it is no secret to anyone that we have the strongest team in the world today. We are doing everything possible to keep the national team in shape - this is a matter of principle for us," the chief coach of the Russian national team, Dzambolat Tedeyev, stressed. It is difficult to disagree with his words, especially as Russian athletes proved their bid for success is serious for next year's Olympic Games.

Not enough vacancies

At the same time, for the first time in history, Azerbaijan will participate in the female wrestling at the Olympic Games. This was made possible by the seventh place taken by Maria Stadnik (48 kg), which is enough to get a place at the Olympic Games in Beijing. In her first fights, she made quite a good impression, beating Cristina Croitoru from Romania. She also beat Kim Hyung-joo from Korea and Brigitte Wagner from Germany. However, in the quarter-finals she lost to the eventual winner of the championship, Chiharu Icho, and had to fight for the bronze. In the consolation fight, she was confronted by American Stephanie Murata who beat Maria in the first period - 2-1. The second period ended in a draw, which allowed the US representative to go through. As a consolation gift, Maria won a ticket to Beijing. Her initiative was supported by her teammates Yuliya Radkevich (55 kg) and Olesya Zamula (63 kg), who took eighth and seventh places in the tournament and won places at the Olympic Games. So the women's team clearly did more than expected.

So do you think that four Olympic places won at the world championship are a good result for the host team? Of course, the team, especially the "classics", failed to fill enough vacancies. What is more, in the freestyle wrestling team, naturalized sportsmen, except for Camsul-varayev, did not make a good impression. For example, Ali Isayev (120 kg) lost to his rival from Bulgaria in a fight for a place, missing his chance to get to the Olympic Games. So, the level of our 'imports' leaves something to be desired and the national federation and coaches will have to work on this. On the other hand, there were also objective factors for the defeat of a number of sportsmen who failed to get to the finals. For example, Camsulvarayev is simply unable to compete with the redoubtable leader in the 74 kg weight category, Makhach Murtazaliyev, from Russia. The same can be said of Khetag Gazyumov (96 kg) who did not have any answers in the quarter-finals to Artur Taymanov who carried the flag for Uzbekistan. "On the one hand, it is good that the contest was held here. However, sometimes it seemed that we were playing somewhere abroad as the referees put pressure on us. We cannot win both abroad and at home. Perhaps, if the championship had been hosted by another city, Baymarov would at least have won a place, but here in Baku he could not do it," Cafarov observed. At the same time, the team's potential allows us to hope that the wrestlers will be able to manage their task in forthcoming tournaments and increase the number of Olympic places.

Meanwhile, winning a place does not mean that the athletes who win it will go to Beijing. The thing is that in wrestling, unlike many other sports, sportsmen do not get personal tickets to Beijing. The country gets only the right to be represented in one or another category. So the coaches will have to make up their minds about the team of wrestlers to go to the Olympic Games, choosing the sportsmen in the best shape.

In conclusion, we can only add that the championship was organized at quite a high level, which is proved by guests' impressions. Of course, the championship raised Azerbaijan's profile in the international arena to an even higher level, since sports is now part of politics. At times, a successful performance or a major contest can help promote the image of the state. In any case, our country has long been known as a sports power because the most prestigious contests are held here very often. However, the wrestling championship stands out because Azerbaijan has never hosted such a major event with Olympic placing status before. So we can confidently say that Azerbaijani sport has turned a new page in its history.