Papadopoulos wins gold at the World Veterans Wrestling Awards

With the victory of Yiannis Papadopoulos, the third day of the World Veterans Olympic Wrestling Championship was completed, as in the last match of the day and in the final of the 130k. the Greek wrestler won the gold medal.

Papadopoulos was amazing and gave Greece its third medal (two gold, one bronze), while the National Anthem was played on the field for the second time.

The Greek successes continued, as Ilias Boukis took 5th place and unfortunately due to a minor injury he was unable to compete in the short final.

The third medal and second gold for the “Greek colors” in the world championship of Veterans wrestling, which is hosted in the indoor gym “G. Galanopoulios” came from Yiannis Papadopoulos at 130k. of freedom in category A (up to 40 years).

Papadopoulos’ path to the 130km podium. he started from the qualifiers where he faced the American Mingo Grant whom he submitted by fall in 2:59. He advanced to the semi-finals without a fight where he faced Rustam Gereikhanov (Independent). The Greek champion, although he found himself 2-0 down, was undeterred, leveling the score at 2-2 and 26 seconds before the end of the match took the victory by fall to seal the ticket to the final, knowing that the podium place was assured .

However, he was not satisfied with his presence in the final, on the contrary, against the Bulgarian Yanko Hadzinski, he proved his dominance in the category by winning 3-1 and celebrating Greece’s second gold medal – and third overall – in the competition, after that of Emzarios Bentinides and the bronze of Andreas Kliousis.

Ilias Boukis performed excellently in the 100km, but was unlucky. Despite losing by technical superiority in the qualifier to Ahmet Bilici, the Turkish wrestler reached the final and allowed the Greek champion a second chance through repechages to reach the podium.

Boukis was impressive in his match against Michael Bark. The American led 5-0, but with a sustained counterattack, Boukis scored 16 points in a row and prevailed in an emphatic way with technical superiority.

Unfortunately, however, a last-minute injury prevented him from competing in the bronze medal match against Aybek Usupov of Kyrgyzstan.

In the details, the opportunity for Savvas Karipides to claim the bronze medal was lost. In the phase of “16” at 88k. he was defeated 3-0 by the Hungarian Gabor Hatos who reached the final with the consequence of “pulling”” the Greek champion in repechages.

Karipidis made it to the second round of repechages by knocking out Turkey’s Serdar Doruk 4-2, but in the crucial match leading up to the bronze medal match, fatigue was evident (he needed to wrestle both of his opponents in a row) with as a result of being defeated 3-0 by the Turkish Abdulhamit Altun.

Heraklis Siamidis, also at 88k, in his first participation in a World Championship, took 7th place at 88k. after his defeat in the repechage by the Turkish Ismet Karabulut 7-0, while he was defeated by technical superiority in the qualifier by the Georgian Temur Gelitashvili to prevail by technical superiority.

Finally, at 70k. Efthymis Tserepas was defeated in the qualifiers by technical superiority by the American Orlando Jimenez.