Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship kicks off in Armenia
16.01.2010 15:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship launched in
Armenia on January 16

Over 50 wrestlers in 55, 66, 84 and 120kg weight categories competed
on the first championship day. Sportsmen from different Armenian
regions participated.

The names of sportsmen who made it to finals were already announced.
Today’s finals will take place several hours later.

The championship will be continued tomorrow, January 17, with
wrestlers in 74, 60 and 96kg weight categories participating.

Greco-Roman wrestling is a style of wrestling that is practiced
worldwide. It was contested at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896
and has been included in every edition of the summer Olympics held
since 1908. Two wrestlers are scored for their performance in three
two-minute periods, which can be terminated early by a pinfall. This
style of wrestling forbids holds below the waist which is the major
difference between it and Freestyle wrestling, the other form of
wrestling at the Olympics. This restriction results in an emphasis on
throws, since a wrestler cannot use trips to take an opponent to the
ground or avoid throws by hooking or grabbing their opponent’s leg.

Arm drags, bear hugs, and headlocks found in Freestyle have greater
prominence in Greco-Roman and throws especially known as a suplex are
used, in which the offensive wrestler lifts his opponent in a high
arch while falling backward on his own neck to a bridge in order to
bring his opponent’s shoulders down to the mat. Even on the mat, a
Greco-Roman wrestler must still find several ways to turn his
opponent’s shoulders to the mat for a fall without legs, including
(but not limited to) techniques known as the bodylock and the
gut-wrench.

According to the International Federation of Associated Wrestling
Styles (FILA), Greco-Roman wrestling is one of the six main forms of
amateur competitive wrestling practiced internationally today.