Giorgi Meshvilidze reaches World championship final!

Today, the Wrestling World Championships kicked off in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.

On the opening day, freestyle wrestlers competed across four weight categories.

At 61 kg, Nureddin Novruzov lost 2:5 in the Round of 16 to Iranian Ahmad Mohammadnejadjavan. Since his opponent advanced to the final, Novruzov will have the chance to compete in the repechage tomorrow.

At 70 kg, Kanan Heybatov secured confident victories over Iran’s two-time World silver medalist Amirmohammad Yazdanicherati (15:4) and Shannon Hanna of the Bahamas (10:0). In the quarterfinals, he faced Armenia’s European champion Arman Andreasyan in a tense match. Although Heybatov held a 6:3 lead, he was eventually defeated 6:8.

At 86 kg, Arseniy Dzhioev defeated Puerto Rico’s Ethan Ramos 5:2 in his debut match but was beaten 8:13 in the quarterfinals by Japan’s Hayato Ishiguro. As Ishiguro advanced to the final, Dzhioev will also enter the repechage tomorrow.

At 125 kg, Giorgi Meshvilidze defeated Uzbekistan’s Khusanboy Rakhimov and Hungary’s Vladislav Baitsaev by the same score (7:0) to reach the World Championship semifinals for the first time in his career. Facing Poland’s Robert Baran in the semifinals, he secured a 2:0 victory to book a spot in the final. Meshvilidze will now battle Iran’s decorated wrestler Amir Zare for the gold medal.