If the Russian men's wrestling team went to the World Cup in Nur Sultan in the status of the main favorites and obvious applicants for gold, then the expectations from the women's team were modest. A year ago, Russian girls did not manage to win a single medal at the championship of the planet, and even earlier, the bronze medal of Valeria Lazinskaya in weight up to 63 kg became the only success.
The fact that the situation is unlikely to change in Kazakhstan has been confirmed by the results of this season. While men won on-duty victories at the European Championships and European Games, the women's team, even without competition from the Japanese, Chinese and American, it was hard to get to the podium. In these two tournaments, only three finals took place with the participation of Russian girls, one of which Stalvira Orshush won, and the rest Svetlana Lipatova and Anastasia Bratchikova lost. At the same time, both silver medalists of the continental championships did not go to the World Cup, which made the position of the team absolutely critical.
However, in the Nur-Sultan of the Russian national team managed to surpass itself and even before the end of all women's competitions to show its best result in history. According to the results of the drawing of eight sets of rewards out of ten, the team has five medals, two of which are with a golden tint. Never before had two girls from Russia immediately become world champions in one year.
One of the victories was won by Natalia Vorobyova. After the birth of a son, the season for the 2012 Olympic champion was not easy. At the European Games, she lost two of the three fights and was left without a medal. In addition, the coaches sent her to compete in the non-Olympic category up to 72 kg, and Ekaterina Bukina was assigned the task of winning the Olympic license in the heaviest weight, although Vorobyova won the last duel with each other.
As a result, the World Cup was successful for a native of the Irkutsk region. In the weight category up to 72 kg, in addition to Vorobyova, only one famous athlete competed - European champion from Ukraine Alina Berezhnaya. The Russian woman met with her in the final, not having experienced resistance in preliminary fights. Vorobyova started the gold duel actively, earning points twice for pushing her opponent off the mat. In the second period, a hand grab brought her two more points. In the last seconds, Berezhnaya answered with a two-pointer, but it was too late to turn the tide of the meeting.
Vorobyova became a two-time world champion, which none of the Russians have ever succeeded in. After the victory, she admitted that she thought about leaving the fight, but could not completely immerse herself in family affairs.
“Honestly, after the Olympics in Rio, I generally wanted to leave the sport and take care of my family and my child. She planned pregnancy, everything went on as usual, and then she woke up and realized that I had not yet recruited. After the Olympics in Brazil, I organized a charity sale, sold my entire uniform, and for the first time I did not even have anything to train in. Because I was so full of struggle then, I really wanted to be at home and deal with flowers and pots. I wanted home life, family, peace. Well, I got this peace of mind for a year and a half. And it carried me again to the carpets of the world! ”RIA Novosti quoted Vorobyov as saying.
The second gold for the Russian team won Inna Trazhukova. She also performed in the non-Olympic category up to 65 kg, from which many favorites decided to leave temporarily. Up to the semifinals, the 29-year-old athlete confidently coped with her rivals, after which she was able to defeat Azerbaijani Alice Manolova with only two points difference.
In the final, Trazhukova was also opposed by an athlete from Ukraine Irina Kolyadenko. But the duel with her was no longer as strained as that of Vorobyova. Even a small cut did not prevent the Russian woman from completely dominating the carpet. With a score of 9: 0, Trazhukova made another shot in her favor, now beyond the bounds of the carpet, which the judges rated with four points. The 29-year-old athlete, whose best result used to be the European Championship silver, managed to become the world champion for the first time in her career, for which she will now receive three million rubles from the Russian Wrestling Federation.
“Thanks to everyone involved in my training, thanks to the coaches who believed in me and put me on the team. This is one of my main victories, thanks to the coaching advice and my personal trainer Yuri Golubovsky, who is not here right now. Thanks to Ulyanovsk and Dagestan, to all who supported me. Emotions are running wild now, I believed that I became the world champion only when I took the last point, ”Trazhukova commented on the victory.
The Russian team had a chance for another gold. In the weight up to 59 kg, the European Champion of 2017 Lyubov Ovcharova reached the final. Her tournament path could have ended in the quarter finals, when she lost 4: 8 to Chinese woman Pei Sinju for half a minute before the end of the fight. But the 23-year-old athlete managed to put her opponent on the shoulder blades. After that, Ovcharova won an early victory over the fighter from India Puja Dhanda and led in the final against the Canadian Linda More with a score of 6: 1. But now the Russian woman had to learn the bitterness of defeat on the carcass due to careless protection.
Two more medals in the piggy bank of the Russian national team were smelted from bronze. The third place in the weight of up to 55 kg was shared by Olga Khoroshavtseva. After losing to the Japanese Nanami Irie in the quarter-finals, who represent the strongest country in women's wrestling, the Russian woman then triumphed in a consolation tournament. Khoroshavtseva won the bronze fight against the hostess of the competition, Marina Sedneva, with a clear margin of 13: 0.
Especially valuable can be called the bronze of Catherine Poleschuk in weight up to 50 kg. This award was the only one that the Russian athletes won in the Olympic category and which brought the license for the Games in Tokyo. Poleschuk usually does not fight at the lightest weight, but the coaches decided to go for an experiment to close the problem position in the team.
In the quarter finals, the athlete was not lucky to meet the female wrestling legend Maria Stadnik, who eventually brought gold to Azerbaijan, but Poleshchuk did everything possible in the bronze tournament. In the final fight with the favorite from China, Song Yanan Poleshchuk won the gap by four points in the last 40 seconds and won the last action.
“Since this is my first tournament in this weight, I did not know the rivals, and they did not mean me either. This is a plus for me. I did not pay attention to the titles of the rivals, and the bronze final with the Chinese woman came out confident in victory. I relaxed a little at the end, but I’m very glad that the match ended in my favor. You can fight with the Stadnik. It’s just that my first match was the wrong tactic, ”Poleshchuk commented on the successful experiment.
In the other five categories, in which Olympic medals will be played in a year, the Russians did not succeed. The best result was shown by Marina Simonyan in weight up to 57 kg, which reached the quarterfinals and could fight for bronze, but lost her last match with a difference of 11 points to Irina Kurachkina from Belarus. Ekaterina Bukina (up to 76 kg), Maria Kuznetsova (up to 62) and Khanum Velieva (up to 68 kg) lost in their first fights, and Stalvira Orshush was able to hook only one victory. Although the World Cup in Nur-Sultan was the most successful for women's wrestling Russia, only Poleshchuk was able to qualify for the Olympic Games.