The wrestling world championships season of 2024 started at the Olympic Games in Paris and moved on to the U17, U20 and U23 world championships in Amman, Pontevedra and Tirana respectively.
The championships for the non-Olympic weight categories at Tirana, Albania was the final destination this year. There was some confusion regarding whether an Indian team would participate, even 2 days before the competition.
Well, we did have a team and even though the results were middling, it was quite an interesting event to follow.
Let us go through the various categories, one by one.
Men’s 61kg freestyle:
Zaur Uguev, Olympic champion in 57kg from Tokyo must have been the pre-tournament favourite along with defending champion in 61kg, Vito Arujau of the USA. Udit was in Vito’s side of the draw and had his task cut out. Vito vs Udit turned out to be an extremely cagey affair and to be honest, Vito’s performance was not worthy of that a defending champion.
Don’t know why Vito was not given a passivity warning in this match.
The standout, by far, was Masanosuke ‘Assassinono’ Ono- he was the athlete of the entire tournament. He teched everyone except Uguev.
In fact, he destroyed Uguev in the first period 9-0 and held back (felt like it) out of respect for the Russian. The way he threw Arajau to achieve the tech victory- chef’s kiss. Higuchi, Kiyooka and now Ono- Japan has got some team.
PS: Thanks to Vinay Siwach for the Assassinono nickname.
Men’s 70kg freestyle:
Manish Goswami was seriously not up to the mark here.
The field did not have any big names and Nurkozha Kaipanov, silver medallist from 2019, and Yoshinosuke Aoyagi were the best on show.
The final’s script went along the lines of a lot of these matches- tight with Kaipanov edging out a victory.
Men’s 79kg freestyle:
Legend Jordan Burroughs had entered and that created a buzz in this category. My favourite in the field was the Iranian, Nokhodilarami, senior Asian champion.
Georgian Kentchadze, a ‘nearly’ man for long, achieved the top prize besting Nokhodilarami- the Iranian had come out on top earlier this year.
The Iranian was cruising with a 6-0 lead with 45 seconds to go, only for Kentchadze to get the leg lace and ram home.
The final seconds of the match were just a formality with the Iranian visibly being in pain.
Men’s 92kg freestyle:
This was truly the marquee category here- Abdulrashid Sadulaev, David Taylor and Kamran Ghasempour- 2 Olympic champions and the other the defending world champion- all names that deserve to be in the Olympics.
Sadulaev vs Taylor in the qualification round was so big, UWW streamed it for free on Youtube.
Sadulaev gave a masterclass in defence and counterattack beating Taylor 7-0. Sadulaev vs Ghasempour in the SF was the final before the final- the Russian was losing until the final 5 seconds- you had to see the end of this match to believe it. Sadulaev- you legend!
Parvinder Singh (79kg) and Sandeep Mann (92kg) were some way off the mark in their respective categories.
Now moving to the Women Categories
Women’s 55kg:
Kirti had a tough opener vs Jin Zhang of China (pinned in a minute) and her best chance was through repechage.
The Chinese and Japan’s Moe Kiyooka were clearly the best on show; Kiyooka teching Zhang in the final proves she was a class apart.
Women’s 59kg:
Mansi Ahlawat (bronze) made history by becoming the first Indian wrestler to win a wold championship medal in all age categories- cadets to seniors.
Mansi beat experienced American Jacarra Winchester in the qualification round and the freshly minted U23 champion, Solomiia Vynnyk (she beat Anjli in the finals) in the QF.
Mansi might not make any major waves in the future but she can say with pride that she won India’s only medal at Tirana 2024.
Women’s 65kg
Manisha has been around for quite some time. She came up against the eventual gold medallist, Jia Long and Japan’s Miwa Morikawa and it would be too much to expect her to win against them- she did alright.
Sonam (remember her- she was in Tokyo in 62kg) had beaten Jia Long as a junior- Jia Long beat the Japanese by technical superiority and won by fall in the final.
Women’s 72kg:
Bipasha has time and age on her side- she is still a junior- but she has some way to go before being considered a serious contender.
Ami Ishii had won the Japan’s Olympic quota for Paris but lost the national team spot to Nonoka Ozaki- winning gold here would have been some solace for Ishii.
Written By Sundaram
