Michaela Samoil became the vice-champion of Europe among athletes under 23 years old in the weight category up to 55 kg. On her way to the finals, the 21-year-old athlete defeated Hungary’s Rosa Sentammasi and Russia’s Anastasia Yandushkina, who competes under the auspices of the UWW (International Olympic Wrestling Federation). In the final, her opponent was Turkish athlete, last year’s European U-20 champion Tuba Demir, who won 7-0 on the carcass.
Mihaela Samoil is a ward of the coaching tandem of Andrei and Petru Kiperi. Over the year she has significantly improved her result. At the European Youth Championships 2024, held in Azerbaijan, she won a bronze medal. Tirana hosted the World Youth Championships last year, where she took 19th place. It is noteworthy that at the adult world championships held in Bucharest (Romania) at the beginning of last year, Mihaela took 5th place, having entered the heavier weight category – up to 57 kg.
Among the achievements of Mihaela Samoil it is also worth mentioning the 3 silver medals she won at the championships in different age categories: in 2021 – at the Junior World Championships (U-20) in Ufa (Russia), a year later – at the European U-20 Championships in Rome (Italy) and at the Youth World Championships in Pontevedra (Spain). With the dynamics of results that the athlete has been demonstrating for 4 years, she will be able to compete for a quota at the next Summer Olympic Games, which will be hosted by Los Angeles (USA) in 2028.
The silver medal allowed the national team of Moldova to take the 10th place in the team standings among the 20 countries participating in the women’s competitions. The first 5 places of the final ranking were taken by the countries whose representatives often take prizes in most weight categories – Turkey, Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Hungary.
Freestyle wrestlers Ion Marku and Evgeny Mikhalchan won bronze medals in weight categories up to 74 kg and up to 86 kg respectively. Ion Marku lost in 1/8 finals to Aganazar Novruzov from Azerbaijan. The bout ended with the score 1:1, but since the opponent of our athlete was the last to score a point, according to the rules of freestyle wrestling he passed to the quarterfinals. The Moldovan wrestler got the right to the consolation bout, in which he defeated Italian Raul Caso. This allowed Ion to qualify for the “small final” (fight for the bronze medal), where he faced Manuel Wagin from Germany. The representative of Moldova won a convincing victory with the score 11:4 and shared the 3rd place with the representative of Georgia Luca Chkhitunidze (in wrestling competitions there are two “small finals”, the winners of which receive bronze medals – author’s note).
Evgeniy Mikhalchan in his weight category up to 86 kg also entered the “small final”, though, unlike his national team partner, he won in 1/8 finals – over the representative of Albania Ibrahim Sula. In the quarterfinals he lost to Arseniy Dzhioev from Azerbaijan, but got an additional chance in the consolation match. Razmik Yepremyan from Armenia was Yevgeny’s opponent, and our athlete won on the carcass with the score 4:0. In the “small final” the 22-year-old representative of Moldova was stronger in a duel with Radomir Stoyanov from Bulgaria (7:2). The second bronze medalist in this weight category was the Russian Arslan Bagaev, who competed in a neutral status.
In the weight category up to 57 kg, 19-year-old Ion Bulgar lost the fight for the bronze medal. Turkey’s representative Bekir Keser was stronger in the “small final”. Two other freestyle wrestlers of our country finished a step away from the podium: Fyodor Chavdar lost to Murad Khagverdiyev from Azerbaijan in the weight category up to 65 kg, and Pavel Graur lost to Umut Erdogan from Turkey in the weight category up to 70 kg.
Two wrestlers failed to overcome the quarterfinal stage – Vasile Marcu (up to 61 kg) and Marius Retko (up to 70 kg). In the most prestigious weight categories, the representatives of Moldova lost in qualifying fights – Ion Demian (up to 92 kg), Constantin Buza (up to 97 kg) and Dmitri Duskov (up to 125 kg).
In the team standings, the Moldovan men’s freestyle wrestling team took 6th place, behind only the leading European countries in this sport – Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia.
The program of the European Youth Championships will end with the decisive bouts among Greco-Roman wrestlers. At the time of preparing this issue for printing it became known that one of the favorites of the competition in the weight category up to 77 kg, 22-year-old Alexandrin Gutsu in the semifinals lost to Russian Evgeny Baidusov. The two-time winner of the Youth World Championships (2023, 2024) earned the right to compete for the bronze medal in the “small final”.
At least a silver medal was secured by 21-year-old wrestler Vitaly Yeremenko. On his way to the final, the athlete defeated David Zhotyan (Armenia), Alexander Andreev (Russia) and Romeo Beridze (Georgia). The final bout, in which Vitaly’s opponent was Ziya Babashov from Azerbaijan, took place in the evening of March 13.
In other weight categories Moldovan wrestlers performed unsuccessfully – Gabriel Lupasco stopped at the quarterfinal stage in the weight category up to 87 kg, and Maxim Sarmanov (up to 55 kg) was defeated in the qualification round.
On the penultimate day of the tournament the following athletes entered the competition: Pavel Denisenko in the weight category up to 67 kg, Vasyl Zabika – up to 72 kg, Alexander Solovey – up to 82 kg, Roman Balkivsky – up to 97 kg.
PHOTO: Vice-champion of the European Youth Wrestling Championships Michaela Samoil.
after her victory in the semifinals over Russia’s Anastasia Yandushkina // Photo: uww.org
