Russia returned to the world freestyle with gold

The freestyle wrestling tournament as part of the World Wrestling Championships in Belgrade brought the Russian national team, which returned to top competitions, two gold medals. Its main star, Abdulrashid Sadulaev, remained at the championship without a victory, but it was won by Akhmed Usmanov (category up to 79 kg), as well as Zaurbek Sidakov (up to 74 kg), who dealt with the famous American Kyle Dake in the final.

The United World of Wrestling (UWW) and other structures involved in it did not hesitate to present this world championship almost primarily as a return of the Russian team. All clear. It was the main force of the species for decades, but last spring, like other domestic species, it fell into isolation. The wrestlers’ exit from it turned out to be much softer, perhaps, than that of representatives of other genres. For example, the compositions of fencing and taekwondo teams, which were formally again admitted to official international competitions, were subjected to harsh purges, losing leaders. The wrestlers miraculously managed to avoid it, and a version of the national team arrived in Serbia, very similar to the optimal one.

The results of the performance of the component responsible for freestyle wrestling were, perhaps, not completely triumphant, considering, for example, that at the last top competitions with the participation of Russians before the suspension – the Olympics in Tokyo and the World Championships in Oslo, held in 2021, the freestyle wrestlers had three golds each, but at least they didn’t prove that the break had set them back far.

In most categories there is a struggle for high places, and there is only one real failure. True, it was too loud, such that it was impossible not to pay attention to it.

Abdulrashid Sadulaev flew to Belgrade in the status of a unique wrestler: two Olympic golds, five world championships, a series of continuous successes in all important competitions, opened at the end of the previous decade and cut short only by sanctions. His next fight with the titan of American freestyle wrestling Kyle Snyder was awaited with bated breath, but it never came to fruition. Because of a young guy named Akhmed Tazhudinov.

The irony of fate: Tazhudinov actually matured as an elite athlete in the Dagestan club named after Sadulayev, but decided to compete for Bahrain – not such a rare case for Russian wrestlers changing citizenship for the opportunity to fight at major competitions. In Belgrade, the 20-year-old upstart defeated Snyder in the quarterfinals, and in the semifinals figured it out and with your idol. True, it turned out that Sadulaev was terribly hampered by a serious injury – a hernia in the cervical vertebra.

The loss of the faithful gold was compensated by two other excellent wrestlers.

Akhmed Usmanov in the category up to 79 kg conqueredin fact, his first highest award of the most important tournament, showing an extremely calm and cold-blooded fight in the final against the Georgian Vladimir Gamkrelidze.

History with Zaurbek Sidakov came out very special. Sidakov is the winner of the Tokyo Olympics. But while he was absent from the mat, the American Kyle Dake, a wrestler with amazing stats, established himself as the king of his category thanks to two world championships won in a row. In Belgrade, the grid brought them together in the final.

And this was, perhaps, the best fight of the entire championship so far. The drama and wit in it were through the roof.

In the first period, the persistent Dake earned a point, which allowed him to take the lead. But then pandemonium ensued. In the second, Zaurbek Sidakov, who had just been mostly on the defensive, suddenly went on the attack and took the lead. Dyke caught up with him. And then they grappled on the carpet, turning each other over. It was terribly difficult to understand this carousel. The judges initially gave a three-point lead based on a series of techniques to Sidakov. The Americans filed a protest, and Dake’s gap shrank to a single point. In the end, he desperately pressed, but Sidakov demonstrated simply perfect defense.

Alexey Dospehov