WRESTLING – BAHRAIN added a bronze medal last night to complete an impressive three-medal haul and secure their place in the top five on the medal table at the Polyak Imre and Varga Janos Memorial, also known as the Budapest Ranking Series, held in Budapest, Hungary.
Bahraini Magomedrasul Asluev took third place in the men’s 74kg division of the freestyle wrestling competition.
The meeting was part of United World Wrestling’s (UWW) Ranking Series, which features competitions held worldwide, supervised by the UWW, where athletes earn points to establish their world ranking.
Asluev’s bronze added to the gold medals won by teammates Akhmed Tazhudinov and Shamil Sharipov in the men’s 97kg and men’s 125kg categories, respectively, on Thursday night.
Those results – along with the solid performance of Alibeg Alibegov who just missed out on a medal in the men’s 65kg category – earned the kingdom’s national team enough points to take fifth place overall amongst 26 nations from around the world who placed on the final freestyle teams’ ranking.
Tazhudinov and Sharipov scored 25 points apiece, Asluev had 15 points, and Alibegov contributed 10 for a 75-point total.
Georgia finished on top of the table with 105 points, followed by the US on 102, Azerbaijan with 100, and Japan with 77.
Bahrain had two other wrestlers in Budapest, with Khidir Saipudinov and Magomed Sharipov being eliminated from the qualification rounds.
The Polyak Imre and Varga Janos Memorial marked the final stop on this year’s UWW Ranking Series. It was a key event for wrestlers looking to earn a seed for the UWW Senior World Championship this September in Zagreb, Croatia.
In yesterday’s action, Asluev won three of his four matches en route to bagging bronze.
He began the day with a 12-1 technical superiority victory against Daegil Han of South Korea in the round of 16. He then went on to beat Jaideep of India 6-5 on points in the quarter-finals, but narrowly lost his semi-final to Magomed Bashir Khaniev of Azerbaijan 2-4 on points.
That result dropped him to one of two bronze medal contests, where he faced Yeldos Kuanyshbay of Kazakhstan.
Asluev triumphed 8-2 on points to take a share of the bronze with David Aaron Carr of the US.
Securing the men’s 74kg gold was Kota Takahashi of Japan, who defeated Khaniev in the final.
Also yesterday, Magomed Sharipov competed in the men’s 92kg category but bowed out at the opening stage after losing to Azerbaijan’s Osman Nurmagomedov 1-6 on points.
Bahrain’s delegation in Budapest was headed by Bahrain Wrestling Federation board member Kamal Jamal Kamal, and it included BWF technical director and coach Eldar Eldarov.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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