WRESTLING – BAHRAIN’S Shamil Sharipov gets the men’s wrestling national team’s medal bid underway today in the Senior World Championships 2025 in Zagreb, Croatia.
Sharipov will be hitting the mat in the men’s 125kg category, which is one of four freestyle divisions that will be taking place on the opening day of the event, which is being organised and run by United World Wrestling (UWW).
Sharipov is part of the kingdom’s six-wrestler squad in the worlds’ men’s freestyle programme. The others are Paris 2024 Olympic champion and former world champion Akhmed Tazhudinov competing in the 97kg, Alibeg Alibegov in the 65kg, Magomedrasul Asluev in the 74kg, Khidir Saipudinov in the 79kg and Magomed Sharipov in the 92kg.
Sharipov is the only wrestler in action today. Asluev, Saipudinov, and Magomed Sharipov are all wrestling from tomorrow, while Tazhudinov and Alibegov begin their quest for gold on Monday.
The worlds will also see battles in Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling.
Sharipov is coached by the legendary Shamil Omarov, who is also the mentor of Tazhudinov and Bahrain’s other wrestlers.
Sharipov is the sixth seed in the men’s 125kg category, where Giorgi Meshvildishvili of Azerbaijan is number one.
The 28-year-old Bahraini will get his campaign underway in today’s qualifying round, where he will take on Filip Koscic of Croatia. The winner of their match will move on to the round of 16, where they will take on the victor of the qualifier between Johannes Ludescher of Austria and Buheeerdun Buheeerdun of China.
The five seeded athletes who are ranked ahead of Sharipov – including Meshvildishvili – are all already through to the last 16, where they await their opponents. The others are second seed Amir Hossein Abbas Zare of Iran, third seed Dzianis Khramiankou representing UWW, fourth seed Robert Baran of Poland, and fifth seed Lkhagvagerel Munkhtur of Mongolia.
Sharipov heads into Zagreb in fine form, having excelled in two major international competitions held in July. He first struck gold in the 125kg category at the Grand Prix of Spain in Madrid, and then followed it up with another gold at the Polyak Imre and Varga Janos Memorial in Budapest, Hungary, an event held as part of the UWW Ranking Series.
Also this year, Sharipov won bronze in the Senior Asian Championships in Amman, Jordan, which took place last March.
Today’s action in the men’s 125kg category continues until the semi-finals, which are scheduled for a 7pm start, Bahrain time. The repechage round and medal bouts will take place tomorrow. Meanwhile, Tazhudinov was amongst a series of wrestlers who participated yesterday in the pre-competition Press conference in Zagreb’s Westin Hotel.
Tazhudinov, widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound freestyle wrestler in the world, said through an interpreter that the men’s 97kg division is very interesting.
He highlighted that he has won against most of the wrestlers in their category, and that he has fully recovered from the shoulder injury that sidelined him for several months after his gold medal triumph at last year’s Olympics.
Bahrain’s wrestlers have so far won two medals in the history of the Senior World Championships. Tazhudinov’s gold in 2023 was the first-ever title won by the kingdom in the prestigious event.
Adam Batirov had earlier clinched a silver medal for the kingdom in the men’s freestyle 70kg division at the 2018 edition of the worlds.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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