Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Cadet Wrestling World Championships has wrapped up in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Azerbaijani national team successfully performed at this tournament by ranking second in the team competitions with 123 points.

In particular, Azerbaijani freestyle wrestler Jabrayil Hajiyev became the world champion in the category of 65 kg. In the final, the national wrestler was stronger than Russian Batyrbek Tskhovrebov (6:4) and grabbed the competitions’ gold.

Meanwhile, Murad Hagverdiyev from the Azerbaijani team defeated Vladislav Nikandrov from Kyrgyzstan and gained the bronze medal.

The Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestler Nihad Mammadli won the gold medal. Mammadli, competing in the weight category up to 55 kilograms, met with Indian athlete Pravin Pandurang Patil in the last fight for the first place. Mammadli won a brilliant victory with the score 9:0 and rose to the podium.

Another national wrestler Ziya Babashov (48 kg) won the silver medal, losing with the score 1:3.

In addition, Lachin Valiyev (92 kg) became the world champions, while Elmir Aliyev (51 kg) grabbed silver, and Farid Sadikhli (45 kg) gained bronze medal of the Championships.

Thus, the Azerbaijani team ranked second in the team competitions, scoring 123 points. The Iranian team ranked first (148 points), while Russia was third (99 points).

Wrestling remains the most popular sport in Azerbaijan 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 the only two nations ever to increase the number of medals achieved in five consecutive Games.

Azerbaijan left Rio de Janeiro with a total of 18 medals. Nine of these medals were gained by the national wrestling team.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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