Arseniy Dzhioev reaches World Championship final for the first time

October 30, 2026

The Wrestling World Championships are underway in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

On the seventh day of the competition, finalists were determined in the men’s freestyle 61kg, 70kg, 86kg and 125kg weight categories.

Nuraddin Novruzov (61kg) suffered a narrow 4-5 defeat to Kazakhstan’s Assil Aitakin in the Round of 16, conceding a point to his opponent in the final seconds.

Kenan Heybatov (70kg) defeated Ukraine’s Vasyl Shuptar 8-2 but lost 0-7 to the USA’s Zane Richards in the quarterfinals.

Arseniy Dzhioev (86kg) secured convincing victories over Bahrain’s Khidir Saipudinov (7-1) and India’s Pushpender Dalal (7-2). His bout against Greece’s world and European champion Georgios Kougioumtsidis was a closely contested affair. Dzhioev prevailed 3-1 to advance to the semifinals. On his way to the final, Arseniy dominated Georgia’s Vladimeri Gamkrelidze, winning 9-1. Having reached the senior World Championship final for the first time in his career, our wrestler will face the USA’s Kyle Dake, a two-time Olympic medallist and four-time world champion, in tomorrow’s decisive bout.

Our two-time European champion and World Championship silver medallist Giorgi Meshvildishvili (125kg) first defeated Mongolia’s Nambardakhva Batbayar 10-0 by technical superiority, then overcame Türkiye’s Hakan Buyukcengiz 10-1. However, Meshvildishvili lost 0-5 to Russia’s Abdulla Kurbanov in the semifinals and will compete for the bronze medal tomorrow.