Saturday at the World Wrestling Championships in Nur Sultan became a landmark for the Russian team. She has already accumulated 15 awards and two more were guaranteed thanks to the wrestlers Abdulrashid Sadulev and Magomedrasul Idrisov reaching the finals in the weight categories up to 97 kg and up to 61 kg. The wrestlers were able to repeat the national record of 1993, when 17 awards were also won in total at three championships of the planet.
On the last day of the competition, the Russian team had a real chance to surpass the achievement of 26 years ago and get closer to the heights that only Soviet wrestlers set themselves. Indeed, in two more weight categories of free-style wrestling, Russians still had chances of at least bronze.
Weighting up to 79 kg, Haji Nabiev flew early from the main draw due to the defeat of Kyle Dake from the United States, but could immediately tune into comforting fights - the American was the main favorite and had to reach the finals. As a result, Nabiev continued to fight for the medal, only for the bronze. The first obstacle for the debutant of the World Cup was the representative of Kyrgyzstan Oybek Nasirov. Nabiev won with a score of 8: 2 and made his way to the battle for third place.
His path was repeated by Arthur Naifonov, who needed to participate in the bronze match not only to satisfy personal ambitions, but also for the team. In his weight category up to 86 kg Olympic licenses were also played. Naifonov on the eve lost to the Iranian Hassan Yazdani, so in order to gain a quota he had to win at least one battle of the consolation tournament. The European champion coped with this task by ending the fight with the Hungarian ahead of time with Istvan Weber. After that, it was already possible to dream of a bronze award, which was played out in the evening series of fights.
The final session of the final day was opened by Magomedrasul Idrisov. He argued for gold with one of the most unlucky freestyle wrestlers Bekoy Lomtadze from Georgia, who fought in the finals of the World Cup, European Championship and European Games, but never won. This series was interrupted in a duel with a Russian wrestler. At first, Idrisov led the account due to the opponent's liability, but then he began to miss Lomtadze's counterattacks. Three times the judges recorded effective techniques on it, and as a result, the Georgian won the long-awaited gold. Idrisov was the first freestyle wrestler from Russia to take silver from Nur Sultan.
Then Haji Nabiev returned to the carpet. He had to challenge the bronze in a duel with the age Dagestan Rashid Kurbanov, representing Uzbekistan. In this case, youth overcame experience. With active passes and interceptions, Nabiev created a reserve of eight points, which Kurbanov was too late to win back. He managed to play his muscles, pushing the Russians out on the carpet and then earning two more points, but still the medal went to Nabiev. And for the Russian team, she became 18th at this World Cup - not a single country has earned so much since the days of the USSR.
The piggy bank immediately replenished with one more award. Arthur Naifonov had to play bronze with a representative of an exotic country for the fight. Miles Amine is an American of Lebanese descent, but internationally represents San Marino thanks to the great-grandfather's citizenship. In Nur Sultan, he reached the semifinals, having won a license for the country in weight up to 86 kg, but he could not support the success with a medal. Naifonov immediately went in step and made two rolls, after which he stopped the fight for five minutes, as the matter had already been done.
The last fight of the World Cup was the final of all up to 97 kg between the Olympic champions of different years - Russian Abdulrashid Sadulayev and Azerbaijani representative Sharif Sharifov. The two rivals know each other very well, and not only because of the meetings on the carpet in which Sadulayev always won victories, but also because they live on the same street. Many fans expected that the rival of the Russian would not be a former compatriot, but an American Kyle Snyder who wanted to get even for last year's silver, but Sharifov knocked him out of the semifinals.
The gold fight began in a calm manner, which was a little unusual for such titled fighters. Sadulaev earned the first point as a liability and only before the break did he manage to successfully get to his feet. In the second period, the cautious and risk-free struggle continued. 23-year-old Russian did not climb on the rampage and was able to add only one for three points for pushing for the carpet. When the stopwatch counted the set six minutes, Sadulayev was proclaimed a four-time world champion in wrestling, and for the Russian team he won the ninth gold and 19th medal.