“There was a real fight, with a knockout, it almost became a fight.” Coach of the Russian Greco-Roman wrestling team – about Visaitov’s bronze medal in Croatia

Russian Greco-Roman wrestler Aslan Visaitov could count on victory at the Zagreb Open tournament, and the bronze medal match almost ended in a fight, the head coach of the Russian national team said in an interview with . Gogi Koguashvili .

The United World Wrestling (UWW) Zagreb Open ranking tournament took place in Zagreb from January 12 to 14. Visaitov lost to French national team representative Gagik Snjoyan in the semifinals and defeated Serbian Sebastian Nada in the bronze medal match. Russian Greco-Roman wrestlers competed in neutral status and won five medals: gold for Milad Alirzaev (up to 87 kg) and Sadyk Lalaev (up to 60 kg), bronze for Alan Ostaev (up to 87 kg), Visaitov (up to 67 kg). kg) and Anvar Allahyarova (up to 60 kg).

— Has the absence of many years of international competitions affected the level of Russian wrestlers?

– Of course, this period has not passed without a trace, the guys must reach the international level. Honestly, this start was very important for us. We haven’t played for a year and a half or two, we’re very far behind. And this doesn’t just apply to wrestling, but to other sports as well. Such downtime affects the qualities of athletes.

The guys looked good in Croatia. Of course, there are questions about the quality of the fight, we will analyze the mistakes so that they cannot happen at the next international competitions, including at the European Championships. You can’t imagine how much confidence the wrestlers gained during the tournament.

As head coach, I was afraid that the history of performances at the World Championship would not repeat itself. We then prepared very well, but we arrived and could not show a decent result.

Every bronze medal in Zagreb is for me personally like a gold medal. I’m not even talking about the guys who became winners. These are the strongest competitions: 40 participating countries, Olympic champions and world champions, the highest competition in each weight.

Milad Alirzaev qualified for six matches in one day and won a gold medal! Alan Ostaev became a bronze medalist. It’s good that they were divided into different groups and were able to bring us two medals in the weight category up to 87 kg. Alan fought the current world champion in the first encounter and won in 30 seconds – 10-0! In the semifinals, he did not have time to recover and lost very little to the representative of the Iranian national team – 1-2, the opponent was lucky by draw. And Alirzaev won against the Iranian in the final. There were no errand boys at the tournament; every meeting was a big name!

In the weight category up to 60 kg, our first number was Anvar Allahyarov, the second was Sadyk Lalaev. And it turned out that Sadyk became the champion, and Anwar the third. There is nothing surprising in such results, Lalaev proved his strength. But in this weight we have a lot of strong guys, now the main ones Dinislam Bammatov and Emin Sefershaev are injured.

Aslan Visaitov led difficult matches in the weight category up to 67 kg and overtook the strongest subgroup. He was just a little far from reaching the final against the Frenchman, he did not have time to recover and lost in an even fight. Aslan has not competed internationally for two years; if he had such encounters, he would not have made a small mistake and could have won. In the fight for the bronze medal, Visaitov met with a representative of the Serbian national team, his opponent was a very powerful and experienced wrestler, and Aslan showed character and desire to win, he lit up like never before – there was a real fight on the mat, with KO, almost to the point of a brawl!

The guys’ performances give us confidence that we will definitely get Olympic licenses in all weight categories and look good at the competitions we are invited to. All our athletes are patriots, they are ready to fight everywhere and show good results. Even after the disastrous performance at the World Championships, I understood that we were capable of doing more.

National competitions allow you to maintain your current form, but if the team does not participate in international tournaments, it deteriorates. The World Championship showed that it was not our level, we were two heads lower than our rivals. There was a debriefing, for two months, every day they worked on the mistakes, discussed with the athletes why they lost, what was missing. And the psychological factor due to the lack of international departures also had an impact. The guys were ready, determined, there was a desire, but they failed to succeed. After the World Cup, we held four full training camps, without changing anything radically, but we trained with even more power. You don’t have to invent a bike, you just need to be better prepared. We have a strong team of masters and coaches – they figured it out, understood what needs to be done. And the tournament in Zagreb showed that we are on the right track,” Koguashvili told .

In March 2022, the UWW suspended Russian athletes from international competitions due to the situation in Ukraine, and in April 2023 it allowed them to participate with neutral status.