BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 17. The U20 World
Wrestling Championships have kicked off in Bratislava, the capital
of Slovakia.
On the opening day of competition, the finalists in Greco-Roman
wrestling were determined in the 63 kg, 77 kg, 87 kg, and 130 kg
weight categories.
Azerbaijan's Tural Ahmadov (63 kg) defeated Greece's Marios
Kapantaisou 6-1 but narrowly lost 2-3 to Uzbekistan's Kuvonchbek
Ismailov in the quarterfinals. Since his opponent advanced to the
final, Ahmadov will compete in the repechage on Monday.
Another Azerbaijani wrestler, Javidan Nehmatov (77 kg), made an
impressive start to the tournament. He dominated Greece's
Adamantios Papadatos 8-0 and Kyrgyzstan's Elkhan Choenbekov 9-0 to
reach the quarterfinals. Nehmatov then defeated Kazakhstan's
Yerkebulan Anapi 7-5 to advance to the semifinals, where he secured
a convincing 7-1 victory over Iran's Amir Mehdi Nava. He will face
Armenia's Samvel Terteryan in Monday's final for the gold
medal.
Meanwhile, Orkhan Hajiyev (87 kg) was pinned by India's Akhil
Akhil in the qualification round, while Mikayil Ismayilov (130 kg)
lost his opening bout to Finland's Tomas Rusi on the first-point
criterion after a 1-1 draw.
