Greco News

Monday Roundup: BUL & BLR Nat’l Results; Herman Kare Notes; GER’s Mats

bulgarian national results, nazaryan
Edmond Nazaryan -- Photo: BF Borba

Three events transpired overseas this past weekend with two Eastern Bloc countries holding their respective national tournaments and the Herman Kare International coming and going in Finland.

Bulgarian Results

The most notable action unfolded in Bulgaria (Silven to be precise) with ’20 European Championships gold Edmond Nazaryan the star of the show after taking the top prize at 60 kilograms. Nazaryan, son of legendary lightweight and multi-time World/Olympic champ Armen, decisioned veteran Nedyalko Petrov 5-1 in the final. In addition, the wiry wunderkind was also named the tournament’s “Most Technical Wrestler”.

77 kilos saw Stoyan Kubatov go over two-time World bronze Aik Mnatsakanian for the second year in a row. On the surface, the outcome might seem surprising. Following his earning of consecutive World medals (’18 and ’19), Mnatsakanian shot up to 77 from 72 in preparation for the eventually-postponed Olympic Year, and quickly commandeered the #1 slot when it came time for Olympic qualifying. However — even before Mnatsakanian secured 77 for BUL last spring, he had already lost to Kubatov in the finals of the ’20 nationals seven months prior. They did flip-flop once recently; in October, Mnatsakanian downed Kubatov for gold in Romania.

It is in the optics. Though Kubatov is an experienced, skilled competitor, he does not own a resume that compares to his counterpart. And outside of a Petrov gold in ’21, placing in meaningful Senior events has eluded the 24-year-old. Meanwhile, Mnatsakanian has been a consistent threat in nearly each tournament since the start of his Senior career four years ago, and was thought of a serious medal candidate entering Tokyo. For his efforts, Kubatov received the award for “Most Successful Athlete”.

At 97, ’18 World silver Kiril Milov once again managed to nail down a domestic title thanks to his shutout against Simeon Stankovic (7-0). US fans might remember that Milov was vanquished by G’Angelo Hancock (Sunkist) en-route to the American’s bronze in Oslo this past October.

Bulgaria National Placewinners

55 kg

GOLD: Stefan Grigorov
SILVER: Paolo Milkov
BRONZE: Georgi Raynov
BRONZE: Ayrdin Hussein

60 kg

GOLD: Edmond Nazaryan
SILVER: Nedyalko Petrov
BRONZE: Miroslav Emilov
BRONZE: Martin Velev

63 kg

GOLD: Nikolay Vichev
SILVER: Ilya Mustakov
BRONZE: Ivo Iliev
BRONZE: Rumen Savchev

67 kg

GOLD: Nicholas Sulev
SILVER: Borislav Simeonov
BRONZE: Peter Stoyanov
BRONZE: Radoslav Dimitrov

72 kg

GOLD: Deyvid Dimitrov
SILVER: Nester Nestorov
BRONZE: Konstantin Stas
BRONZE: Georgi Anachkov

77 kg

GOLD: Stoyan Kubatov
SILVER: Aik Mnatsakanian
BRONZE: Zlatomir Emilov
BRONZE: Todor Melkonyan

82 kg

GOLD: Rosian Dermanski
SILVER: Zahari Zashev
BRONZE: Tikhomir Dimov
BRONZE: Stillian Naidenov

87 kg

GOLD: Svetoslav Nikolov
SILVER: Kaloyan Ivanov
BRONZE: Valeri Alexiev
BRONZE: Marian Marinov

97 kg

GOLD: Kiril Milov
SILVER: Simeon Stankovic
BRONZE: Martin Ivanov
BRONZE: Radi Nedkov

130 kg

GOLD: Radoslav Georgiev
SILVER: Asen Petrov
BRONZE: Asen Tabakov
BRONZE: Daniel Kardashliev

Belarus Results

The city of Soligorsk played host to Belarus’ national championships where, yet again, a high-profile final took place at 77 kilograms. In a battle between two well-seasoned combatants, it was Kazbek Kilov who was able to overcome ’17 Euro silver Pavel Liakh via trudging criteria 1-1. They traded passivities, which was responsible for the only scoring in the bout. Neither wrestler threatened the other on the feet, though the tension did rise as the match began to reach its conclusive moments.

The best finals match featured Belarus’ two best upper-weights: ’21 World silver/’20 Olympian Kiril Maskevich (87 kg) and ’17 World silver Radik Kuliev. Maskevich is seen as the future of the country’s program and his ’20 Individual World Cup title along with the hardware from Oslo would justify that consensus. But Kuliev, 29, is still plenty viable and was a runner-up at the Euros this past April for his third career medal at that event.

Their meeting on Sunday was equal parts deliberate and fast-paced. Kuliev received the first passivity/par terre chance and went for a reverse lock; but before he could gain elevation, Maskevich exploded to his feet. A Kuliev attempt later in the opening period saw Maskevich counter and pounce his way to a step-out point. In the second, he connected on a correct-throw-arm-throw, only to have Kuliev contort out of a proceeding lift try. Back on the feet, and Maskevich lunged towards the body, causing Kuliev to adjust, but it was too late. A step-out was called. Disagreeing with the call, Kuliev ordered a review. The call was upheld to give Maskevich another tick on the board and he prevailed 5-1.

Belarus National Placewinners

55 kg

GOLD: Maksim Stupakevich
SILVER: Evgeny Dashkovsky
BRONZE: Soslan Sidakov
BRONZE: Denis Vitoroy

60 kg

GOLD: Maksim Kazharski
SILVER: Gleb Makarenko
BRONZE: Mikhail Kuzmich
BRONZE: Tolibsho Khaybarov

63 kg

GOLD: Yaroslav Kardash
SILVER: Alexander Negoda
BRONZE: Alexander Pisaruk
BRONZE: Ilya Valevsky

67 kg

GOLD: Alexander Liavonchik
SILVER: Soslan Daurov
BRONZE: Maksim Negoda

72 kg

GOLD: Andrey Kovalevsky
SILVER: Andrey Malets
BRONZE: Yan Kashtelyan
BRONZE: Anton Korobov

77 kg

GOLD: Kazbek Kilov
SILVER: Pavel Liakh
BRONZE: Maxim Shed

82 kg

GOLD: Stanislav Shafarenko
SILVER: Nikita Gevrasev
BRONZE: Shuai Mamedov
BRONZE: Evgeny Yurov

87 kg

GOLD: Kirill Maskevich
SILVER: Radik Kuliev
BRONZE: Ilya Lavrinovich
BRONZE: Igor Yaroshevich 

97 kg

GOLD: Pavel Glinchuk
SILVER: Nikolai Stadub
BRONZE: Mark Baranchik
BRONZE: Vladislav Pustoshilov

130 kg

GOLD: Youssef Chugoshvili
SILVER: Alexander Baraban
BRONZE: Georgiev Chugoshvili
BRONZE: Anton Kostyuchenko

Herman Kare

Finland ran the Herman Kare International on Saturday and it was a lot like the Haavisto Cup in December: a predictably heavy Finnish presence, low on participation from everywhere else. Only 34 entrants were involved. That’s it. As for highlighted results worth a mention, Denmark’s Turpal Bisultanov emerged with gold, further bolstering his young Senior career; and at heavyweight, the oft-underrated Lithuanian Mantas Knystautas powered through to victory over Artur Vititin (EST).

Germany Getting New Mats

When Germany does hold their own national event this coming May, they will be unveiling a new mat design that is unique only to them. Working in concert with reputed mat manufacturer Foldeak, the German federation has ordered a design that incorporates their national colors. A rendering of what it will look like can be found below.

germany mat

The Federal Republic of Germany’s updated mat design provided by Foldeak. (Photo: German Wrestling Federation)

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