Youth national beach wrestling teams of Moldova (U-17, U-20) at the World Cup in Katerini (Greece) // Photo: facebook.com
Moldovan wrestler Gabriel Ozhog won the 80 kg weight category. In the final, the 20-year-old defeated Zurab Mamuladze from Georgia 4-0. Before the deciding bout, Ozhog had five consecutive victories: over Damien Porter (USA), Sobhan Esmi (Iran), Nikita Chebanyuk and Nikita Kanevsky (both from Ukraine). Two more Moldovan athletes participated in the same category – Ion Laurenciu Marcu and Vasile Cernenci, but both failed to reach the semifinals.
Alexandra Moisei, who became the world champion among athletes under 17 years old, also took part in the older tournament. As a result – a silver medal in the weight category up to 70 kg. In the final, the 17-year-old Moldovan athlete lost to the 20-year-old representative of Serbia Masha Perovic with the score 2:4. Before reaching the final of the tournament, the junior athlete defeated Marjana Sumski (Croatia), Anna Nitsevich (Ukraine), Amber Hunter Snyder (USA) and was defeated in a duel with Ukrainian Victoria Hrytsenko.
In the second heaviest category among young men – up to 90 kg – 19-year-old Alexandru Borsh added another silver medal to the national team of Moldova. In the course of the tournament he twice failed to defeat the representative of Iran Ramtin Ravanbakhsh, losing in the final and qualifying round with the same score 0:1. He defeated Christian Diaz (USA), Angelos Ntamotsidis (Greece), compatriot Vitaly Perchun and Sayedsayyad Hosseinimiri (Iran).
In the team medal standings, the Moldovan men’s national team (U-20) took the second place among the 10 participating countries. In the first place – the national team of Iran, in the third place – Ukraine. The women’s national team took the seventh place among 11 countries. The leaders are the teams from Ukraine, USA and Serbia.
The World Youth Beach Wrestling Championships for athletes under 17 and under 20 years old were held in the resort town of Katerini (Greece). The national team of Moldova was represented by 17 wrestlers – two girls and 15 boys.
