First day of Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship completed

PanARMENIAN.Net - Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship launched in Armenia on January 16. Over 50 wrestlers in 55, 66, 84 and 120kg weight categories competed on the first championship day. Sportsmen from different Armenian regions participated.



Championship medals went to:



55 kg weight category

1st place Harutyun Hovhannesyan

2nd place Shavigh Gevorgyan

3rd place Narek Khachatryan and Robert Kirakosyan



66 kg weight category

1st place Arman Adikyan

2nd place Hovhannes Martirosyan

3rd place Armen Mikayelyan and Sasun Ghambaryan



84 kg weight category

1st place Denis Forov

2nd place Hrach Hovhannesyan

3rd place Tigran Sahakyan and Levon Geghamyan



120 kg weight category

1st place Vachik Yeghiazaryan

2nd place Ara Arakelyan

3rd place Grigor Merjanyan and Petros Abrahamyan



The championship will be continued tomorrow, January 17, with wrestlers in 74, 60 and 96kg weight categories participating.



Greco-Roman wrestling is a style of wrestling that is practiced worldwide. It was contested at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and has been included in every edition of the summer Olympics held since 1908. Two wrestlers are scored for their performance in three two-minute periods, which can be terminated early by a pinfall. This style of wrestling forbids holds below the waist which is the major difference between it and Freestyle wrestling, the other form of wrestling at the Olympics. This restriction results in an emphasis on throws, since a wrestler cannot use trips to take an opponent to the ground or avoid throws by hooking or grabbing their opponent's leg.



Arm drags, bear hugs, and headlocks found in Freestyle have greater prominence in Greco-Roman and throws especially known as a suplex are used, in which the offensive wrestler lifts his opponent in a high arch while falling backward on his own neck to a bridge in order to bring his opponent's shoulders down to the mat. Even on the mat, a Greco-Roman wrestler must still find several ways to turn his opponent's shoulders to the mat for a fall without legs, including (but not limited to) techniques known as the bodylock and the gut-wrench.



According to the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), Greco-Roman wrestling is one of the six main forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced internationally today.