Georgia's Shmagi Bolkvadze scores gold, team finish third at European Wrestling Championships
Bolkvadze (second from left) earned the gold medal without dropping a single match to opponents in Warsaw. Photo via Wrestling Federation of Georgia.
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Georgia's Shmagi Bolkvadze left the mat at the European Wrestling Championship in Warsaw with a gold medal and pushed the team up to the third spot in the final rankings as the competition came to a close on Sunday.
In his 72kg section Bolkvadze earned the top step of the podium after overcoming Armenia's Malkhas Amoyan in the final with the score 4-1. The final was set up after the Georgian made his way past Russia's Chingiz Labazanov and Hungary's Robert Attila Fritsch in the quarterfinal and semifinal stages respectively.
In the resulting rankings Bolkvadze was ahead of Amoyan and the third-placed Maksym Yevtushenko of Ukraine, while Georgia benefited from three other medals to end up third on 96 points, one more than Azerbaijan and behind Russia's 206 and Ukraine's 113.
The full medal haul included a silver from Iakob Kajaia in the 130kg, after Riza Kayaalp of Turkey took the win off him in the final with the score 3-1. This was added to two bronze medals earned by Leri Abuladze in the 63kg and Aivengo Rikadze in the 82kg respectively.
Full results and standings of the competition can be found on the official website of United World Wrestling.
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