He withdrew (got ?injured?) because he didn't want to wrestle for the 3rd place. The Russian top wrestlers don't like to wrestle for bronze. During the 2006 worlds I collected quotes from interview in which Russian and US wrestlers talked about the 3rd place. I found them very interesting. Russian and US world team members had completely different attitudes toward bronze.

After losing to Bazri, Pritzlaff said ?Hopefully he carries me through.? After losing to Laliev, Hrovat said ?I hope he goes forward and pulls me back in? and he repeated - ?I hope he goes on and makes the finals.?

On the contrary, after losing to Ganev, Saitiev said he hoped Ganev would lose and wouldn't make the finals. Something similar said also Murtazaliev after losing to Stadnik. I cannot find the original Russian quotes in my PC now but I found the comment of the Russian journalist who reported about the event. She wrote in quasi-religious style: ?The losses of Ganev and Stadnik in the semis deprived Saitiev and Murtazaliev of the consoling opportunity to wrestle for bronze. These losses were actually a boon because they saved the Russian favorite wrestlers from another one moral humiliation.?

******
For those who are able to cope with Cyrillic script - the full results in freestyle: http://www.wrestrus.ru/files/docs/druzhba-2007.pdf

akzent,

You can't really compare comments of first timers with comments of past World and Olympic champions.

I doubt John Smith or Dan Gable would be happy wrestling for 3rd place.

Originally Posted by Big

You can't really compare comments of first timers with comments of past World and Olympic champions

Sure I can do this! Because the attitudes don't depend (or at least not to a big extent) on the fact are the wresterls first timers or not. They depend on the value of a 3rd (and 2nd) place in the particular society. In Caucaus, a 3rd or a 2nd place doesn't have any social value. Remember what Kuduhov (a first timer!) said when he had been asked why had he cried all the evening, after losing the final at the worlds! His answer was: We have so many Olympic and world champs at home (in Ossetia) that nobody would give a fukk about my silver medal.

They depend on the value of a 3rd (and 2nd) place in the particular society.

That is very true akzent! Kind of like nobody will give a fukk in New York that you have a brand new Toyota SUV.