Best performance in 28 years: Russian wrestlers won three more golds on the last day of the European Championships in Warsaw

The Russian national wrestling team has successfully completed the pre-Olympic European Championship in Warsaw.

On the last day of the tournament, the Greco-Roman style wrestlers won three more gold medals in addition to the ten already available.

Thanks to this, the current championship of the continent has become the most successful for the Russian team over the past 28 years - in 1993 there were 16 victories.

On Sunday, Sergey Emelin was the first to play his final bout in the weight category up to 60 kg. The reigning vice-champion of the world and the winner of the 2018 world championship in the preliminary fights was completely unstoppable - he completed all three meetings ahead of schedule with a total score of 26: 0. Another finalist, Kerem Kamal from Turkey, had enough to win only two fights to fight for gold, and there his superiority was not as convincing.

The decisive bout was marked by extremely low-quality refereeing. At first, the referee saw an unwillingness to fight in Emelin's actions, although it was he who was much more active than his opponent. Kamal received a point and the right to the ground, which he could not realize. After that, the Turk went on the attack and knocked Emelin onto the carpet, but before that he knocked the Russian's thigh with his knee, which is strictly prohibited by the rules of Greco-Roman wrestling. The Russian side filed a protest, and after the video, four points were removed from Kamal.

In the second period, Emelin took advantage of the ground and rolled forward, leading with a score of 3: 1. His victory could no longer raise doubts, but the referee again intervened in the dispute between the wrestlers. In the last seconds, Kamal tried to push the Russian off the carpet and immediately got a point for it. His team filed a protest, hoping to earn two points at once, but the replay showed that Emelin did not go beyond the circle at all - most of the foot was still on the carpet. After that, the native of Mordovia was finally awarded the victory, and he became a two-time European champion.

The next to go to the final fight was Adlan Akiev, who returned to the national team after winning the Russian championship.

He carried out the preliminary stage in weight up to 82 kg quite confidently, and in the quarterfinals he even won the Ukrainian Yaroslav Filchakov on the carcass.

Another contender for gold was the former Russian Radik Kuliev, now representing Belarus.

In the final, Akiev was very actively involved in the struggle and already at the end of the first period led with a score of 5: 0, having carried out two effective moves.

After the break, Kuliev had a chance to correct the position on the ground, but the Russian athlete immediately got out of the grip and continued to create problems for the opponent.

A minute later, Akiev caught the gaping Kuliev and effectively threw him out of the mat, ending the fight ahead of schedule.

This victory was already the 12th for the Russian national team in Warsaw.

A spectacular end to the tournament was put by the current, two-time world champion in the weight category up to 97 kg Musa Yevloyev.

Over the past three years, he has not lost a single fight in international tournaments, and he also could not have stumbled at the European Championship, which was missed by his main rival Artur Aleksanyan from Armenia.

Yevloyev's rival in the final was the 38-year-old Hungarian Balazh Kiss, who won the World Championship back in 2009.

To defeat him, the Russian took only 93 seconds.

Yevloyev masterfully grabbed Kiss in the stalls and carried out three rolls in a row, after which the judge had no choice but to stop the fight due to the obvious advantage of one of the wrestlers.

Yevloyev became a two-time European champion and brought the Russian team the last, 13th gold medal.

On the last day of the European Championship, a representative of the weight category up to 72 kg Chingiz Labazanov could also rise to the podium. True, he had to fight not for first place, but only for third. The 2014 world champion lost to the Olympic bronze medalist Shmagi Bolkvadze from Georgia in the quarterfinals and was sent to the consolation tournament, where he competed for a medal with Hungarian Robert Fritsch. This fight Labazanov also failed - the Russian wrestler went outside the mat early, and then was twice punished for passivity. Although he did not allow anything to be done with him in the stalls, he himself could not create any danger for Fritsch and was defeated.

Another category in which the Russians were left without medals on Sunday was the weight up to 67 kg.

It was supposed to be the finalist of the last two world championships, Artyom Surkov, who was entitled to be considered the main contender for gold.

However, the athlete from Mordovia, after the victory over the Georgian Joni Khutsiriani, felt bad and refused to further fight.

The next important start for Russian wrestlers will be the world qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

It will take place from 6 to 9 May in Sofia.

So far, the team lacks three quotas in women's wrestling and one each in freestyle and Greco-Roman.