Victor Ciobanu (left) after defeating Amiran Shavadze (Georgia) in the fight for the bronze medal of the World Olympic Wrestling Championships // Photo: uww.org
Artem Deleanu became the bronze medalist of the competition in the weight category up to 55 kg. The 26-year-old Moldovan wrestler needed only one victory to get on the podium: in the 1/4 finals he confidently defeated Denis Florin Mihai from Romania with the score 7:1. In the semifinals Deleanu lost to Russian wrestler Emin Sefershaev, who was competing in a neutral status.
World champion (2021) and European champion (2019) Victor Ciobanu failed to overcome the semi-final stage. The 32-year-old defeated Nedyalko Petrov (Bulgaria) 5-0 in the 1/4 finals, but in the next round he lost heavily to future European champion Nihat Mammadli from Azerbaijan. In the bronze medal fight, Ciobanu scored a convincing 10-0 victory over Amiran Shavadze (Georgia).
Vitaliy Eremenko started his performance in the competition (up to 63 kg) with a defeat: in the 1/4 finals Turkish wrestler Kerem Kamal left no chance to his Moldovan counterpart (9:0). Kamal soon became the European champion. After the defeat, the 22-year-old Moldovan wrestler got the right to an additional qualification match, in which he lost to Tino Tapio Ojala (Finland) with the score 0:6. In the semifinals, Eremenko, who won a gold medal at the European Youth Championships in March, lost to Murad Mammadov of Azerbaijan (2:3).
Alexander Solovey, another gold medalist at the recent Youth European Championships, won the bronze medal in the 77 kg weight category. In the first bout he lost to Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia), who later became European champion. In the additional qualification bout the 20-year-old wrestler defeated Mateusz Bernatek (Poland) with the score 10:8, and in the bout for the third place was stronger than the representative of Bulgaria Hayk Mnatsakanyan (3:1).
The European Olympic Wrestling Championships were held in Bratislava (Slovakia) from April 7 to 13.
Read more about the performances of Moldovan wrestlers in all weight categories in the Friday edition of LP.
