Russian Abdulrashid Sadulayev made history at the World Wrestling Championship held in Oslo these days.

He once again defeated his most principled rival Kyle Snyder of the United States and won the fifth World Cup gold.

The 25-year-old native of Dagestan became the youngest freestyle wrestler who conquered the championship of the planet so many times.

The confrontation between Sadulayev and Snyder has been considered the most spectacular and expected in its sport for several years, which is why the United World of Wrestling even came up with a separate name for it - "Snyderlaev". They first met in the 2017 World Cup final, when Sadulayev gained weight and moved to the 97 kg category, in which Snyder won the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro a year earlier. Their first battle ended with an American victory and only the second Russian defeat on the international stage.

A rematch took place in 2018. The two wrestlers again reached the final of the world championship, and this time Sadulayev put Snyder on his shoulder blades 70 seconds after the start of the fight. By the way, the Russian then finished all his fights ahead of schedule. At the next world championship, "Snyderlaev" did not take place due to the defeat of the American in the semifinals, after which the wrestling fans had to wait another two years to see their fight for the gold of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Sadulayev was stronger this time too, although he then struggled with a leg injury, which severely limited his arsenal of actions.

Many leaders of the Russian national team missed the competition in Oslo, but Sadulayev, even after rehabilitation, did not miss the opportunity to replenish his collection of awards with another champion title.

He confidently reached the final, scoring two early victories along the way.

Snyder achieved the same, hoping to get even with the Russian for the defeat at the Olympics.

The duel of the two wrestlers was also notable for the fact that it had to sum up the results of the team standings in freestyle wrestling.

By the time there was only the final in the weight category up to 97 kg, the national teams of Russia and the USA, which occupied the first two lines in the rating, had 148 points each.

Accordingly, the battle between Sadulayev and Snyder depended on which team would be declared the strongest.

In the final, the wrestlers did not rush things.

Throughout the first period, they looked closely at each other and were in no hurry to go on the attack.

By the break, the judge assigned only one point to Sadulaev, issuing a warning to Snyder for passivity.

The same thing happened in the second three minutes.

When it seemed that nothing interesting would happen in the fight, Sadulayev suddenly found himself behind Snyder's back and managed to lay him down on the carpet, and then earn two more points by coasting.

The Russian took the lead with a score of 6: 0 and retained the gained advantage.

After the victory, Sadulayev said that he was still in pain from the injury.

He also admitted that the fight with Snyder was as difficult for him as at the Olympics.

“I really wanted to win, because a five-time champion sounds better than a four-time one.

Years of work pays off.

Today, thank God, I won my next gold medal ... With Snyder there are always such tough fights.

And at the Olympics, I barely carried my legs, and today at the end I got tired ... I have not fully recovered yet (after a knee injury -

RT

), but it was slightly better than in Tokyo.

I think now I deserve a little rest, I will treat my injuries, ”said the athlete.

Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RWF) talks about winning his fifth world title and beating fellow world and Olympic champion Kyle SNYDER (USA) for a third consecutive time.

# WrestleOslopic.twitter.com / OmdLL0i8d7

- United World Wrestling (@wrestling) October 5, 2021

Sadulayev became the 12th freestyle wrestler to win five gold medals at the World Championships. And taking into account the silver medal, which he won in 2017, he rose to eighth place among the most titled athletes in his discipline. Before Sadulayev, only one man managed to win the world championships so many times at the age of 25 - this was the Greco-Roman style wrestler Hamid Sorian from Iran.

In addition to Sadulayev, Yevgeny Zherbaev took part in the third medal day of the World Championship in Oslo.

He became a bronze medalist in the weight category up to 70 kg and brought the Russian national team the eighth medal - no other freestyle wrestling team won so much.

In the fight for third place, Zherbaev defeated Armenian Arman Andreasyan.

It is interesting that Magomedmurad Hajiyev, a former Russian wrestler now playing for Poland, won gold in this weight category.

Before him, there was not a single world champion in freestyle wrestling in this country.