Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Results of FILA Junior Wrestling World Championships 2014, running in Croatia till August 10, show that Azerbaijani wrestlers have already gained their highest achievements in the sport history of the country.

Azerbaijan's junior national Greco-Roman team took the first place, winning five of eight weight classes over two days.

Azerbaijani athletes showed good results just from the start of the competition winning three gold medals on the first day. Thus, Mukhtarov at 60kg defeated Karen Aslanyan from Armenia 4-1, Ibrahim Nurullayev at 50kg won Oleksii Zhabsky from Ukraine 9-2 and Orkhan Nuriyev at 96kg overcame his rival Seungjun Kim from Korea 2-0.

On the second day of the competition, Murad Mammadov at 55kg defeated Teishov Rustam 4-1 at the final. Another gold winner, Islam Abbasov at 84kg did not leave any chance for winning for Denis Kudla from Germany and defeated him 5-3.

With five gold medals and one silver - by Ruhin Mikailov at 66kg - Azerbaijan's team gained 59 points. Georgia with one champion and three bronze medalists took the second place with 44 points, while Russia took the third place with 31 points.

The winner of the championship and member of Azerbaijan team, Islam Abbasov, said: "We were well prepared for the championship. At each competition, we set a goal to show successful performances and gain medals."

"One of our goals was to win Armenian wrestlers. That is why we thought only about victory. (Abbasov defeated Grigoryan at 44th second with the score 8:0). Yesterday our fighters gained victories and their victories raised our morale," he stressed.

Silver winner of the championship Rukhin Mikailov also talked about the tournament, especially about his fight with a rival from Armenia.

"There is no any weak rival in the championship. For example, my Armenian rival Grant Kalachyan was the European champion who defeated his rivals with a wide margin. But due to support of my trainers and officials of the federation, I was psychologically well-prepared to attend the tournament," Mikailov said. "With these victories, I and my fellows took the revenge of Azerbaijan's soldiers killed and wounded in Nagorno-Karabakh, occupied by the aggressor Armenia."