Idman.biz
The main goal of the Azerbaijan wrestling team is to achieve good results at the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
This was stated by Sabah Shariati, the coach of the Azerbaijan national Greco-Roman wrestling team, an Olympic medalist.
He emphasized that the continental championship is not inferior to the world championship in terms of competition.
"The level of the competition was very high. The European championship in "classical" wrestling is always strong, because there are about 10 strong teams competing here. There is almost no big difference between the European and world championships. Only in the World Cup, countries such as Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Cuba increase the competition a little more. Thank God, our children performed well here. True, we expected better results in some weight categories. But anything can happen. Some wrestlers made mistakes and could not win a medal. We have brought a new generation here, some are still young. We believe that this generation will form the basis of our adult team after the Olympics," he said in a statement to report.az.
S. Shariati spoke about the new system implemented in the national team, which brought a "fresh spirit" to the athletes:
"After switching to this new system, after the arrival of the new coaching staff, it seems that the children have gained a new life, a fresh spirit. Psychologically, the children believe in themselves more. When they leave the mat, they say that they are not tired, their breath and strength are in place. If the previous system was based more on the Russian school, now it is the Iranian system. Here, we pay great attention not only to wrestling, but also to physical fitness, endurance and individual work on mistakes. With this system, children have started to believe in themselves."
The Olympic medalist admitted that the biggest gap in Greco-Roman wrestling is in the heavy weights:
"Our biggest weakness and problem is heavy weights. Unfortunately, we do not have enough material at hand. These athletes are not worked with properly from childhood. A completely different program and system is needed for heavy weights. We have plans and ideas about this, but we still have a lot of work to do."
In the end, he pointed to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games as the main goal:
"Our main goal is the 2028 Olympics. On this way, the European and world championships, license competitions are a step to gain experience. For example, Elmin Aliyev, who is the champion in the 82 kg weight category, is only 20 years old. You shouldn't rush to include him in adult competitions, everything should be step by step. Overall, our results are good, although our expectations of winning a gold medal in the 60 kg and some other weights did not come true. But the children are young, they are not fully 'cooked' yet. They will be better in the future."
It should be noted that Azerbaijani Greco-Roman wrestlers won 5 medals at the U-23 European Championship.
