OMM Newsroom
The Greco-Roman wrestling events at the world championships in Astana conclude today, October 27. Azerbaijan has a chance to win three more medals.
Final and bronze-medal bouts
World champion Nihat Mammadli will wrestle Armenia’s Karen Aslanyan in the 63 kg final. They also met in the semifinals of the 2024 world championships in Tirana, where Mammadli won 6-1 and went on to claim gold. A win this time would give him his second world title.
Hasrat Jafarov, competing at 67 kg, will wrestle for bronze. He lost to Olympic champion Saeid Esmaeili of Iran in the semifinals, with the bout ending 1-1 and Esmaeili advancing on criteria. Jafarov’s opponent will be determined after the repechage bouts. The wrestlers competing in that stage are Ilyas Laauina of the Netherlands, Jin Xing of China and Bagdat Sabaz of Kazakhstan.
Islam Abbasov also remains in contention for a medal at 87 kg. He lost 6-5 in the round of 16 to Bulgaria’s Olympic champion, Semen Novikov. In the repechage, Abbasov will first face Latana Sopa of American Samoa. If he wins, he will wrestle Georgia’s Lasha Gobadze; should he advance, he will have a chance to face Uzbekistan’s Makhammadkodyr Rasulov for bronze.
The last confirmed meeting between Abbasov and Gobadze took place at the European Championships in Zagreb on April 22, 2023. The Georgian wrestler won the bronze-medal bout 3-0. They also met at the 2021 world championships, where Gobadze won 11-0.
The repechage bouts will begin at 9:30 a.m. Baku time, with the medal bouts scheduled for 5 p.m. Azerbaijan has won two gold medals at the championships so far: Eldaniz Azizli claimed the 55 kg title, while Sanan Suleymanov won at 77 kg.
Context
On October 26, four more Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestlers joined the competition at the world championships in Astana. They included Nihat Mammadli at 63 kg and Islam Abbasov at 87 kg.
