Greek triumph in Loutraki – Two gold, one silver and one bronze medal

The 5th day of the World Veterans Wrestling Championship, hosted at the indoor gym “G. Galanopoulos” in Loutraki.

Greece won 4 medals in two age categories in Greco-Roman and reached 8 in the event. On Saturday (21/10) the Greek team won two gold medals from Emzarios Bentinidis (88kg, 3rd category) and Ilias Boukis (70kg, 4th category), one silver with Vassilis Batala (88kg, 3rd category) and a bronze medal with Christos Tortopidis (88k. 3rd category). Thus, overall our country increased its harvest to 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze.

“Blue and white” the 88 kg podium

The category of 88k was dressed in “blue and white”. in the Veterans III (up to 50 years old) where Greek wrestling actually triumphed with a triple presence on the winners’ podium. The final turned out to be a Greek affair, as Ezmarios Bentinidis and Vassilis Batalas fought for the gold medal, while Christos Tortopidis took the bronze medal.

Emzarios Betinidis – who a few 24 hours earlier had won the gold medal in the corresponding category of freestyle – initially eliminated Panagiotis Papageorgiou in the first Greek “civil war” of the category by fall and in the quarter-final he prevailed with the technical superiority of the Finn Yanni Lautanen, while with him way he also defeated the French Frédéric Calix.

On his way to the podium, Batalas defeated the Saudi Arabian Mohamed Said Alramiz with technical superiority in the qualifiers and passed without a fight in the semi-finals, after Elsorbaghi’s Egyptian opponent retired in the “8”.

Then in another Greek “civil war” in the category he faced Christos Tortopidis and won 2-0 to advance to the final.

In the final, Batalas took a 2-0 lead, but Bentinidis fought back immediately to win 7-2 and be crowned world champion, completing the freestyle and Greco-Roman double.

Tortopidis in the “8” had eliminated Nikos Christopoulos 6-1 and had a second chance to get on the winner’s podium, which he did not let go to waste. With an excellent performance, he overcame the Saudi Mohamed I Alzramez and celebrated the bronze medal.

In the same category, Papageorgiou also had the opportunity to claim a medal through repechages, but lost to Yanni Lautanen 5-3.

Boukis is world champion

The 70 k. of Veterans IV (up to 55 years) proved to be a case of one. Vassilis Boukis completely dominated his opponents, showing from the very first race that the place on the podium was a given and we just had to find out what color the medal he would wear on his chest would be.

His journey started from the qualifiers and he successively beat the German Gunnar Sprunk in the “16”, the Swedish Hans Nilsson in the “8” and the Mongolian Niamdori Khayankhyarv in the semi-final.

In the final, the Greek champion was once again dominant, with Kazakh Nariman Kaymanov unable to stop him and Bouki winning 5-1 and being crowned world champion.

In the same category, Dimitris Kefalidis faced Hans Christer Henrik Nilsson from Sweden in the round of 16, in a match that he lost. The Swede then lost to Boukis and so Kefalidis did not enter the repechage.