Dmitry Popov
Dimitri Popov reached the final of the tournament among veteran wrestlers aged 41 to 45, he was represented in the weight category up to 78 kg. The Moldovan wrestler defeated Lamir Benbuta (Algeria), Aake Kantola (Sweden) and Marian Nagy (Slovakia). In the decisive fight, the 43-year-old Popov lost 0:2 to Anvar Kasimov from Kyrgyzstan and failed to defend the world title won last year.
The trophy could be the sixth of his career – Popov became world champion in 2018, 2019 and 2022-2024. Kantola and Nikola Jovanovic of Serbia won the bronze medals.
Sergiu David competed in the same age category, but in a different weight – up to 62 kg. He was stronger than Russian Evgeny Butuzov, who competed in a neutral status, and Frenchman Florian Bissler. But he lost the fight for the gold medal to Valentin Lupu from Romania (4:6). The bronze medal winners were Bissler and Marat Garipov, representing Brazil.
In the team medal standings among veterans aged 41 to 45 years, the Moldovan Greco-Roman wrestling team took the fourth place among 27 countries. Only athletes from Kyrgyzstan, Hungary and Romania were higher.
Earlier, the bronze medal was won by 38-year-old Iaroslav Turcan. The Moldovan athlete defeated Shinsuke Miura (Japan) in the small final of the competition among veterans under 40 years old in the category up to 78 kg. This result allowed the Moldovan national freestyle wrestling team to secure the ninth place among the 20 participating countries.
The World Championships in Olympic wrestling among veterans gathered more than 650 masters from 49 countries. Moldova was represented by 10 wrestlers.
