Maxim Dimov (up to 65 kg) on his way to a bronze medal at the European Youth Wrestling Championships // Photo: uww.org
Freestyle wrestler Maxim Dimov reached the small final of the competition in the weight category up to 65 kg, despite the defeat in the 1/4 finals from the future European vice-champion, representative of Ukraine Victor Borohan (3:6). On his way to the medal, the wrestler from Moldova defeated such rivals as Lukas Brandl from Czech Republic (11:0), Jakub Kesy from Poland (3:2) and Janar Lips from Estonia (10:4).
In the bronze medal match, 16-year-old Dimov left no chance to Lazare Guayiradze of Georgia, defeating him 14:3. The gold medal was won by Amal Dzhandubaev of Russia, who competed in neutral status. He defeated Borokhan – Maxim Dimov’s offender – with the score 10:0.
The second bronze medal for the Moldovan national freestyle wrestling team was brought by 20-year-old Ion Bulgaru. During the tournament in the category up to 57 kg he lost to Sasha Petrosyan from Armenia (6:12) and Orest Petraniuk from Ukraine (12:14). The defeat in the duel with Azerbaijani Vasif Bagirov (1:8) in the 1/4 finals did not prevent the Moldovan wrestler to take part in the additional qualifying round, where he defeated the representative of Hungary Karol Barat with the score 7:2.
The European champion in this weight category was Vasif Bagirov, who defeated the opponent from Georgia Niko Zangaladze in the final with the score 9:6.
Last year’s vice-champion of Europe among youth in the weight category up to 70 kg Alexander Gaidarli in the small final lost to Goga Otinashvili from Georgia (1:11), and in the category up to 74 kg Gabriel Ozhog lost the fight for the bronze medal to the Russian Ismail Khaniev (0:10), who performed under a neutral flag. The representative of Moldova in the weight category up to 86 kg Alexandru Borsh failed to go further than 1/4 finals, as well as Vladimir Angel in the category up to 125 kg. Vasily Lazarev (up to 61 kg), Vlad Stratan (up to 79 kg), Gheorghe Mutu (up to 92 kg) and David Erhan (up to 97 kg) were eliminated at the stage of 1/8 finals of the tournament.
According to the results of the freestyle wrestling competition, the Moldovan national team took the sixth place in the team standings. The first five positions were occupied by the national teams of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia and Turkey respectively.
