Will Azeri Greco-Roman wrestling team participate in World Cup due in Yerevan?

PanARMENIAN.Net - On February 12-14, Yerevan will host Greco-Roman Wrestling World Cup.



As RA Greco-Roman Wrestling Federation Secretary General Bazmaser Arakelyan told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the federation has already launched preparations for the event.



8 top teams will rival in Greco-Roman Wrestling World Cup. These include teams from Armenia, Russia, Cuba, Georgia, Iran, Hungary, Turkey and Azerbaijan.



According to Federation Secretary General, next week Azeri team will inform as to their arrival to participate in the championship. "The reply will decide whether Armenian team will participate in European Championship due in Azerbaijan in April," he noted.



In 2009, Armenian Greco-Roman Wrestling team won the 3rd place at World Cup. Teams from Russia, France, Armenia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Hungary, China and Azerbaijan participated, with Russia winning gold at the championship.



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.