Nihad Guluzade became the third in the world

The U-23 World Wrestling Championship has kicked off in Tirana, the capital of Albania.

First, Greco-Roman wrestlers in the 60, 67, 72, 82, and 97 kg weight categories took to the mat.

Nihad Quluzade (60 kg) defeated Japan’s Yasuhito Moriya (6:3), America’s Maxwell Black (9:0), and Iran’s Mohammadmehdi Qolampour (10:5), advancing to the semifinals. However, he was unable to overcome Uzbekistan’s Alisher Ganiev (0:9) in the semifinals. Nihad then convincingly defeated Romania’s Denis Mihai in the first round of the bronze medal match (9:0), winning the U-23 World Championship bronze medal.

Farid Khalilov (67 kg) defeated Sweden’s Niklas Oehlen 4:2 but lost to Kyrgyzstan’s Razzak Beyshekeyev 1:4 in the round of 16. In the consolation matches, Khalilov defeated Albania’s Daniel Dayani (8:0) and Japan’s Haruto Yabe (6:4). However, in the bronze medal match, Farid lost to Poland’s Arslanbek Salimov 4:8.

Ruslan Nurullayev (72 kg) eliminated Belarus’ Ilya Valeuski (8:7), but in a tense round of 16 match, he was defeated by Uzbekistan’s Abror Atabayev 2:3.

Elmin Aliyev (82 kg) secured dominant victories over Poland’s Islam Aliyev (9:0) and China’s Kun Huang (8:0), advancing to the semifinals. However, the wrestler from the Lankaran wrestling school lost to the USA’s Beka Melelashvili on the “last point” rule (3:3). In the third-place match, Elmin was defeated by Georgia’s Data Chkhaidze 1:9.

Murad Ahmadiev (97 kg) eliminated Ukraine’s Yuri Dorogan (5:2), but lost by a narrow margin (3:4) to Sweden’s Algot Kaellman in the round of 16.