One of Armenia’s titled wresters, Roman Amoyan, represented the country in 55kg category. Bronze winner of Beijing Olympic Games, gold winner of European Championship and silver winner of 2009 World Championships beat his rivals from Egypt, Japan and Cuba to be defeated by Iran’s Hamid Sorian Reihanpour in ¼ finals.

Super heavyweight Yuri Patrikeev was close to win gold but failed to defeat world champion Mijail Lopez of Cuba.

Arsen Julfalakyan (74kg) beat his rivals from Argentina, Slovakia, Kyrgyzstan and Japan but suffered a defeat from Turkey’s Selcuk Cebi.

In the team event, Armenia finished 4th, with 26 points.

Arsen Julfalakyan: It’s only me to be blamed for defeat, as I failed to resort to my strongest hold. Another fact was that the Turkish wrestler used body oil, what is prohibited. But it’s not my last fight against Cebi. We will still meet in Turkey and I will do my best to get the champion’s title.

Yuri Patrikeev: I am a bit disappointed with the results but I was really happy to see so many fans. Last year was unsuccessful for me and I even wanted to quit sports but then I changed my mind and now my main task is to train for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Summing up the results, chief coach Levon Julfalakyan said: All three medalists were defeated by world champions only. Roman Amoyan’s fight against Hamid Sorian Reihanpour was one of his best. In the first round the referees were not objective, what determined the result of the fight, although the Iranian wrestler lost the second round. Yuri Patrikeev was defeated in a hard and worthy fight. He will not be satisfied with his achievements and will strive for more, I am sure. Arsen Julfalakyan’s rival was really strong, but he resorted to an inadmissible means and Arsen lost points because of it.

Freestyle wrestlers failed to win any medals.

Vice President of the Wrestling Federation of Armenia thinks the wrestlers made too many mistakes.

“Before the start, the sportsmen were in a good physical shape. It’s hard to say why they didn’t succeed. We will hold a special meeting to discuss what had happened,” he said.

Chief coach Araik Baghdadyan named poor psychological the reason behind the failure of the Armenian freestyle wrestlers.

“First, personal coaches do not work properly. I can’t correct all their mistakes during 15 days of a general training session. Second, our sportsmen have to lose weight (about 4-5kg) to fight in their weight categories. Lack of proper medicine to help them recover strength results in failures. Third, for 3 years already, freestyle wrestlers haven’t won medals at international tournaments but I do not have new sportsmen to staff the team. Besides, there is no competition between the wrestlers,” he said.

However, Baghdadyan noted that there are several new wrestlers who will be included in Armenian team to participate in the upcoming tournaments.

PanARMENIAN.Net covered the World Wrestling Championship with the assistance of Armavia national carrier.