Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestlers claim medals at European Championships

Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestlers have claimed medals at the European Championships held in Bucharest, Romania.

In the final, Murad Mammadov (63 kg) won a gold medal, defeating Ukrainian Alexander Khrusha with a score of 2:1, Azernews reports.

Rashad Mammadov (55 kg) secured second place after losing to Moldovan Artem Deleanul with a score of 3:5.

Beka Kandelaki (130 kilograms) grabbed the bronze medal, beating the Norwegian Oscar Marvik in terms of the quality of technical actions.

Islam Abbasov (87 kilograms) lost by a score of 1:2 to Olympic champion Zhan Belenyuk (Ukraine) in the match for third place and finished the tournament without a medal.

The European Wrestling Championships are the second-oldest international wrestling competition in the modern world and the main wrestling championship in Europe. It predates the World Wrestling Championships and other regional wrestling championships and is second only to the wrestling events at the Olympics.

Note that wrestling remains the most popular sport in the county and is overseen by the National Wrestling Federation, which was established in 1993.

The Rio Games opened a new page in wrestling for Azerbaijan. The country became one of only two nations ever to increase the number of medals achieved in five consecutive games.

In 2020, Azerbaijani freestyle wrestlers finished third in the overall medal table of the Individual World Cup in Serbia.

National wrestlers won two medals, including silver and bronze. Russia topped the medal table, followed by Turkey.

The national team also won five medals at the Grand Prix Moscow held in Russia. The national team won one gold, two silver, and two bronze medals in the tournament

In 2022, Azerbaijani wrestler Osman Nurmagomedov (92 kg) was crowned the World Champion in Belgrade.

Nurmagomedov became the World Champion after defeating the Russian wrestler in the final. He has been crowned the champion of Azerbaijan in the weight category up to 86 kg in 2019.