Hasrat Jafarov and Gurban Gurbanov reach the final of the European Championship

April 21, 2026

The European Wrestling Championship continues in Tirana, the capital of Albania.

On the second day of competition, Greco-Roman wrestlers in the 60 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg, 82 kg, and 97 kg weight categories began their contests.

Nihat Mammadli (60 kg), who joined the competition from the quarterfinals, gave no chance to Ukraine’s Vladislav Kuzko – 5:0. Our compatriot lost by fall to Armenia’s Suren Agajanyan in the semifinal and will face the winner of the match between Tommaso Bosi (Italy) and Suner Konunov (Russia) for the bronze medal tomorrow.

Hasrat Jafarov (67 kg) defeated Sweden’s Niklas Oehlen 5:1 in his opening bout. Our titled wrestler then eliminated Bulgaria’s Abu Muslim Amayev by fall. Jafarov secured a 4:2 victory over Georgia’s Diego Chkhikvadze in a tense semifinal match, advancing to the European Championship final among seniors for the fourth time. Hasrat will face Turkey’s Murat Firat in the decisive bout tomorrow.

Ruslan Nurullayev (72 kg) started by defeating Ukraine’s Dmytro Vasyliev (9:5), but lost in the quarterfinals to Armenia’s Gaspar Terteryan on criteria (1:1).

Gurban Gurbanov (82 kg) advanced to the semifinals by defeating Bulgaria’s Svetoslav Nikolov (7:3) and Moldova’s Mihail Bradu (5:4). One step away from the final, Gurbanov overcame Georgia’s World and European medalist Gela Bolkvadze – 2:1. Gurban will face Russia’s Adlet Tyulbayev in the final tomorrow.

Murad Ahmadiev (97 kg) defeated Finland’s Arvi Savolainen (7:3) and Croatia’s Filip Smetko (2:1), but lost in the quarterfinals to Russia’s Artur Sargsyan – 0:4.