On Sunday, all Russian wrestling fans were very concerned about the defeat of the Olympic champion Zaur Uguev in the quarterfinals of the World Championship. Zaur confidently overcame the first rounds, but Serbian Stevan Micic turned out to be an insurmountable barrier for him. 7:9 – and Uguev had to compete only for bronze.
And a day later, Zaur’s fate was almost repeated by two-time Olympic champion Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the weight category up to 97 kilograms. Once again, the quarterfinal stage, where the rival of the Russian fighter was the Iranian Mojtaba Goleja.
Iranian athletes are traditionally among the world’s wrestling leaders. Therefore, no one expected an easy path for Abdulrashid. But finally our athlete had to perform a real miracle to be able to advance to the next stage. Sadulayev started the fight more actively and scored two points. Thus, the rivals entered the second three-minute period with the advantage of the Russian fighter.
International Wrestling Federation
But Goleja entered the end of the fight as if it were his last fight. And he first equalized the score, and then, cleverly standing up, added two more points. This was already extremely dangerous.
Time was constantly melting: Goleja was running at full speed towards a sensation. Competently repelling all of his opponent’s attacks, he almost reached his goal. There were only five seconds left on the scoreboard for the Iranian sporting miracle, when the “Russian Tank”, as Sadulayev is also called, achieved the impossible. After Abdulrashid’s entry, the opponent lost his balance and fell on his shoulder blades. Touché… and a clear victory. At the same time the score 4:4 appeared on the scoreboard, but that no longer mattered. The fight was over.
International Wrestling Federation
After the end of the fight, Sadulayev lay on the canvas, trying to understand what he had just done. Abdulrashid won many glorious victories that give him even greater status in his career, but this one will undoubtedly occupy a special place in his history. However, the winner of Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo did not have time to rest on his laurels: a semi-final against Akhmed Tazhudinov, representative of Bahrain, awaited him. Losing on that, given everything that happened before, would be very disappointing.
