CLASSIC WRESTLERS FIRST

The World Wrestling Championship, which took place in Belgrade on Sep 16-24, 2023 ended ambiguously for the Azerbaijani national team. While the freestyle wrestlers and women's national team did not justify expectations, in Greco-Roman wrestling competitions our team took the first place in terms of number and dignity of medals for the first time in its history.

Success after failure

The Azerbaijani freestyle wrestling team became the fifth strong in the team classification at the World Cup in Serbia, winning only two medals. Osman Nurmagomedov and Magomedkhan Magomedov were awarded silver medals. Magomedkhan Magomedov also got qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Haji Aliyev, Aliabbas Rzazade, Turan Bayramov left the tournament without medals and licences, although Bayramov was considered one of the perspective medallists. Eventually, he finished the competition with three consecutive defeats in consolation matches. It was obvious that the wrestlers were physically and psychologically unprepared for such prestigious competitions.

The women's national team (six wrestlers), could not get any awards at all. Four-time Olympic medallist Maria Stadnik said goodbye to the competition after losing to an American athlete in the 1/4 finals.

Greco-Roman wrestlers fulfilled the expectations though. The Azerbaijani national team celebrated a historic achievement in Belgrade.  The 'classics' became the winners of the team competition for the first time at the main start of the season. Our team became the strongest with 120 points, ahead of Iran (102) and Türkiye (93).

In total, the Azerbaijani team won five awards in Belgrade: gold medals for Eldaniz Azizli (55kg) and Rafig Huseynov (82kg) and silver medals for Sanan Suleymanov (77kg), Murad Mammadov (63kg) and Hasrat Jafarov (67kg). Although Eldaniz Azizli's weight category is beyond the Olympic standard, he demonstrated good performance and became the world champion for the third time. Eldaniz left no chance to his rival in the final stage of the tournament. For Rafig Huseynov (82kg), it was his second win at the World Cup.

Silver medallists Sanan Suleymanov, Murad Mammadov and Hasret Jafarov were also very close to becoming the first. Suleymanov lost the final because of the tie-breaking point awarded to his rival. The main reason for the loss of young and promising Hasret Jafarov (3-4) was his insufficient physical fitness. Right after the first half he could not resist the pressure of his Cuban opponent. Both Jafarov and Suleymanov received licences to the Paris Olympic Games.

In general, Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestlers demonstrated excellent performance at the World Cup. With 2 gold and 3 silver medals, the national team became the strongest wrestling team of the planet for the first time in its history, beating the runner-up of the tournament, the national team of Iran, by 18 points. The national team also set a new record in terms of the value and number of medals. Also it became the first team in history represented at world championships in five final bouts consecutively.

Two out of six

Two-time world champion Rafig Huseynov said that he was confident of his success: "I'm happy that we won two licences out of six possible. But we have four more licences ahead. We will try to get them at the European championship and the World Qualification Tournament in Baku. I am very glad that our Greco-Roman wrestling team became the world champion for the first time in its history. I am proud to be a part of this team. Two gold medals of the World Cup is also a very good result. This was possible thanks to constant training and the support from the Azerbaijan Wrestling Federation and the Ministry of Youth and Sports".

Breaking more records

Three-time world champion Eldaniz Azizli said he wanted to break a record: "Azerbaijan's Greco-Roman wrestling team has set a new record in its history. For the first time we became world champions. This is a great success for Azerbaijani sport. As a result, we got two licences, but this is not the limit. I believe that next year the number of licences will increase".

Azizli said that it was the first time the Azerbaijani national team became a champion in Greco-Roman wrestling: "Before independence, Maheddin Allahverdiyev was a three-time world champion in wrestling. Farid Mansurov became a two-time champion. I updated my record for the third time. Rafig Huseynov also became a champion for the second time. I want to break my own record for the fourth time, if injuries permit".

Although Azerbaijan outperformed all rivals in the team competition of the World Cup, we could get only two licences for the 2024 Olympic Games. The goal is to increase this number. There will be two more licence competitions for the wrestlers. Baku will host the European Olympic Qualification Tournament in April 2024, while Türkiye will organise the World Olympic Qualification Tournament in May. The first three winners in each weight category at competitions in Istanbul will be the last ones to get qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.