2024-04-06 11:15:15
The Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestling team completed its performance in Baku at the European Olympic Licensing Tournament.
According to İdman.biz, our team completed the competition without licenses.
Four unfulfilled hopes
Our team was represented by four athletes at the National Gymnastics Arena. One of them, Islam Abbasov (87 kg), lost in the first match and could not qualify for the 1/8 finals. Although Nikhat Mammadli (60 kg) and Murad Akhmadiyev (97 kg) made it to the 1/4 finals, they were unable to continue their journey. Our most successful representative Beka Kandelaki (130 kg) stopped one step away from Paris 2024. The heavyweight wrestler lost his chance in the final round of the semi-finals.
The team settled on two licenses
After the tournament in Baku, the number of licenses for Paris 2024 remained unchanged. At the moment, our Greco-Roman wrestling team has won a ticket to the French capital in two weight categories. Khasrat Jafarov (67 kg) and Sanan Suleymanov (77 kg) have already received the right to participate in the most prestigious multi-sport competition of the four years.
Eyes are fixed on Istanbul
The team has not yet lost the chance to increase the number of licenses to Paris. The last chance for the “classics” will be in Istanbul. Turkey’s largest city will host the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The competition will take place on May 9-12. Our team will send four wrestlers to this tournament. We are talking about categories where we were unable to win licenses. To be able to go to the Olympics in all weights, you need to achieve success in your brotherly country.
Threat of anti-record
The Summer Olympic Games in Paris will be the eighth such competition in which the Azerbaijani team will take part as an independent country. If you look at the number of our “classics” who took part in the seven previous Olympics, then the current figure is a repetition of the anti-record. In the worst case scenario, our Greco-Roman wrestling team won 2 licenses. This happened 3 times, including the last time at Tokyo 2020. But there is also a point that in wrestling, which is constantly undergoing reforms, both weight categories and the number of participants decrease from competition to competition. For example, in Atlanta 1996, Greco-Roman wrestlers fought in 10 weights.
In addition to the danger of repeating the anti-record, our “classic” team can also break the record. Our team, which was represented by six athletes in Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016, must show the maximum result in Istanbul to repeat that success.
Our Greco-Roman wrestlers at the Olympics
Atlanta-1996 – 2 licenses
Sydney-2000 – 2
Athens 2004 – 3
Beijing-2008 – 6
London-2012 – 5
Rio-2016 – 6
Tokyo-2020 – 2
Paris 2024 – 2 (on the eve of the last licensed tournament)
Vugar Khairullaev
İdman.biz