- Sunday,
The sixth day of the 2024 European Wrestling Championships saw the first five freestyle wrestling finals. Two of the gold medals went to Armenian wrestlers.
First up was 24-year-old Arsen Harutyunyan (57kg), who won his fourth European title in a row. He stormed onto the mat and pinned Turkey's Muhammet Karavus 10-0 in just 52 seconds. Harutyunyan remained perfect throughout the tournament, winning all three of his bouts 10-0. The bronze medals went to Azerbaijan's Islam Bazarganov and Georgia's Roberti Dingashvili.
It was then Arman Andreasyan's (-70kg) turn to win the first European gold medal of his career after defeating 65kg world champion Ismael Musukaev (Hungary) in the semi-finals the day before. However, the same four-point move that helped him beat Musukaev won him the gold medal in the final against Akaki Kemertelidze (Georgia), 7-3. Musukaev and Bulgaria's Ramazan Ramazanov took the bronze medals.
Albania won the first European title in their history when Islam Dudaev defeated Gadzhimurad Rashidov (Individual Neutral Athletes) in the final of the -65kg category. Rashidov had defeated returning European champion Vazgen Tevanyan (Armenia) in a close contest the day before, but was unable to repeat the feat in the final. Dudaev withstood his opponent's attacks to win 2-1. Germany's Andre Clarke and Azerbaijan's Ali Rahimzada went home with bronze medals.
In the battle of the two Individual Neutral Athletes, Akhmed Usmanov defeated Magomedkhabib Kadimagomedov to win the gold medal in the 79kg category. Italy's Frank Chamizo and Georgia's Avtandil Kentchadze finished third.
Everyone expected double Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev to top the podium at 97kg after being granted a Romanian visa, but Romanian border officials refused to allow him to enter the country after finding some problems with his visa.
Without Sadulaev, Georgia's Givi Matcharashvili won the gold medal and Magomedkhan Magomedov took silver. The bronze medals went to Ibrahim Ciftci of Turkey and Vladislav Baitcaev of Hungary.
https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1143821/armenia-with-two-golds-albania-first