Big

Mahov must have beaten Ahmedov behind closed doors. According to this site this will be Russian freestyle lineup:


Вольная борьба
7 комплектов наград, 266 атлетов во всех видах борьбы
Максимальная квота – по одному атлету в каждой весовой категории
Международный отбор завершен
У России семь лицензий из семи – в весовых категориях до 55, 60, 66, 74, 84, 96 и 120 кг
Гарантированные российские участники: по итогам чемпионата России, который прошел в Санкт-Петербурге, главный тренер сборной России Дзамболат Тедеев назвал первых номеров в каждой весовой категории, которые будут вести целенаправленную подготовку к Олимпийским играм - Бесик Кудухов (до 55 кг), Мавлет Батиров (до 60 кг), Ирбек Фарниев (до 66 кг), Бувайсар Сайтиев (до 74 кг), Георгий Кетоев (до 84 кг), Ширвани Мурадов (до 96 кг) и Билял Махов (до 120 кг)


http://www.allsport.ru/index.php?id=14249

Sorry its all in Russian but you can still see the names.

pinartist

prety much what i expected, i think mahov over ahmedov is a good choice for russia.

Gantry

My Cyrillic is a bit weak, can someone translate the entire lineup for me. Thanks!

legamus

feel free to correct: Kudukhov, batirov, Farniev, satiev, Ketoev, Muradov and makov

akzent

The Russian text copied above is just a small part of a large information about Russian Olympians in all sports. It is dated July 8 but it was obviously not actual even at that time. It contains quite a lot contradictions. On July 8, events of July 1 are mentioned as upcoming!

2 days ago, the personal coach of Akhmedov (who is the coach also of Shirvani Muradov) said in an interview, the federation hadn't taken any decision yet – Akhmedov or Makhov. He said, perhaps the decision will be made during the last training camp – in Krasnoyarsk, in the first half of August.

Until then the top 3 (and more) in each division are on camp in Caucasus wrestling each other “behind closed doors” Rumors say Makhov has beaten Akhmedov. Other rumors say the contrary. Saitiev is said to have beaten murtazaliev and then lost to Tsargush...

Big

Beating murtazaliev again is outstanding. Tsargush is not a threat to Saitiev at this point. I bet even if true it was probably just a practice match and everyone knows inferior wrestlers sometimes win in practice.

akzent

It wasn't a practice match!

The informations about the results of the Friday matches are still contradictory.
Each wrestler had 5 matches of 3 periods (even when a wrestler had already won 2 periods) vs up to 5 different opponents.

At 120, Makhov seems to have beaten Akhmedov (2:1?), though it was Akhmedov who eventually was nominated to represent Russia. Maybe he has wrestled better than Makhov in the other 4 matches.

Kudukhov and Ketoev gave interviews saying some words about the training.
Kudukhov obviously wasn't happy to run in the mountains 3 km up and 3 km down.
Ketoev mentioned hard training in water (3 hours daily) which was something new for him. It isn't clear what did they do 3 hours in the water besides swimming.

karamazov

Thanks Akzent.
can you post what you believe the Russian team will be?

akzent

Kudukhov, M. Batirov, Farniev, B. Saitiev, Ketoev, Muradov, Akhmedov.


Why is everyone interested only in the Russians? There will be wrestlers from so many countries in Beijing, even from Guinea-Bissau! I am a great fan of Augusto Midana, the 74-kg FS wrestler who will be one of the only three Olympians to represent Guinea-Bissau.

I searched for information about him; found almost nothing. The most interesting one: Three years ago, he placed second at an international/African “traditional wrestling” tourney in Niamey, Niger.

Then I found this nice picture of a match in the folk style of Guinea-Bissau:



Notice also that the motto on the ribbon on the G-B coat of arms contains the (Portugese) word for wrestling - LUTA.

Big

akzent,

Why do you think Africans almost never win at worlds and Olympics? Their genetic counterparts from Cuba do pretty well.

From my limited experience with African wrestlers I got the impression they are not that interested in technique and drilling. They seem to rely on their power and other physical attributes which go only so far on the biggest stage.