BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 24. The World U23 Wrestling Championships are underway in Novi Sad, Serbia, with Azerbaijani athletes competing in both women’s and freestyle wrestling categories, Trend reports.
In the women’s division, Elnura Mamedova (53 kg) began with a confident 9:0 victory over Turkey’s Sylu Aykul but fell short in the quarterfinals against Spain’s Carla Soler, losing 11:14.
Gunay Gurbanova (59 kg) demonstrated an impressive performance, defeating Bulgaria’s Victoria Boinova (8:1), Moldova’s Madalina Prisacar (11:0), and Kazakhstan’s Victoria Khusaynova to reach the semifinals. In a hard-fought bout against Japan’s Ruka Natami, Gurbanova was narrowly defeated 1:3 and will compete for the bronze medal tomorrow.
Birgul Soltanova (62 kg) exited the competition after losing to Russia’s Ekaterina Koshkina in the qualification round.
In the men’s freestyle events, Magomed-Bashir Khaniyev (74 kg) achieved three decisive victories — over Georgios Ioakimidis of Greece (10:0), Grigor Cholakyan of Armenia (14:5), and Magomedrasul Asluyev of Bahrain (7:3). In the semifinals, he was defeated 3:7 by Turkey’s Muhammad Ozmus and will now vie for bronze.
Sadig Mustafazadeh (92 kg) opened with a dominant 10:0 win over Spain’s Muhammedsultan Kopbaev but was stopped by Iran’s Muhammedmobin Azimi (0:8) in the round of 16. He will take part in the repechage round tomorrow.
Azerbaijani wrestlers will continue their pursuit of medals in the final stages of the championship.