05. 03. 2015
Sofia (BUL) (5-8.3.2015) A UWW U23 tournament was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in which the Slovak national team also participated. Under the guidance of assistant coach Marek Sciranka, our four Košice wrestlers and also junior representatives Jakub Sýkora, Gabriel Tysz and seniors Jakub Sciranka and Michael Bodnár traveled. This tournament was one of the last in the boys' preparation for the European Championships, which will take place in two weeks in
Wałbrzych (POL). The tournament's lineup was not about quantity, but about quality, as confirmed by the freestyle wrestlers from the participating countries of Turkey, Georgia, Romania, Moldova, Serbia, Algeria, Finland, Japan, and the host Bulgaria.
On the first day, Jakub Sciranka (74 kg) competed, who lost in the first round to the home Bulgarian representative E. Ismail 0:10 and in the B bracket, where the fight is only for bronze, he was no match for the Turk A. Erturk 0:11 and was thus eliminated. Together with Jakub, Gabriel Tysz (97 kg) wrestled on the first day. He fared a little better and easily passed the first round against B. Louenas (ALG) after a 6:0 victory. In the semifinals, he was no match for the Finn J. Hein 4:15 and in the fight for the bronze medal, he lost to the Moldovan D. Ceacust 0:7L. He thus finished in fifth place. On the second day, Michael Bodnár (86 kg) competed, who lost in the first round to the Bulgarian representative S. Dimitrov 1:5. In the B bracket, he wrestled with two other Bulgarians, defeating the first, B. Bonev, by technical superiority 10:0 and the second, E. Rusev, 4:2. In the fight for bronze, he had a rematch from the first match, but after a foul by his opponent with the score at 0:2, he did not finish the match and finished, like his younger colleague, in 5th place. On the last day, our last hope, Jakub Sýkora (61 kg), wrestled. He passed the first round against the Romanian A. Stefan 4:4L and in the quarterfinals, he was no match for the Bulgarian S. Ivanov 11:0. In the B bracket, he also lost to the Bulgarian representative S. Shyukriev 4:8 and did not continue in the fight.
The results only confirmed that it is necessary to participate more in such high-quality tournaments if we want to even get close to the world's elite. (mb)