Haji Karimov reaches the world championship final

August 22, 2026

The U20 World Wrestling Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia, are nearing their conclusion.

On the seventh competition day, freestyle wrestlers in the 70kg, 74kg, 97kg and 125kg weight categories joined the competition.

Haji Karimov (70kg) defeated India’s Sumit Baraskar 5-1 in his opening bout, before overcoming North Macedonia’s Muhamed Veseli 11-2. In the quarterfinals, Karimov defeated Armenia’s Davit Davtyan by technical superiority (12-0), then beat Egypt’s Mohamed Ahmed 9-2 in the semifinals. Haji will face Iran’s Sina Mehdi Khalili in tomorrow’s final.

Ismayil Rahimli (74kg) was defeated 4-2 by Uzbekistan’s Farrukhbek Jumanazarov in the qualification round.

Farhad Suleymanli (97kg) eliminated Hungary’s Robert Erdelyi by technical superiority (11-0), but lost 19-8 to Belarus’ Azamat Tsarikayev in the quarterfinals.

Yusif Dursunov (125kg) defeated Japan’s Hosei Fujita by technical superiority (11-1) and India’s Ronak Ronak 3-2 to advance to the semifinals. However, Dursunov lost 4-1 to the USA’s Dreshaun Ross in the semifinal and will wrestle for a bronze medal tomorrow.