Young Champion of the Continent

9 August 2024
202

The Asian Wrestling Championships ended in the Thai city of Si Racha in late July. These competitions made themselves memorable for a victory celebrated by a 17-year-old athlete from Ashgabat Alp Arslan Begenjov in the under 79 kg weight category of the U20 freestyle wrestling tournament. Our compatriot is the first Turkmen athlete to show such a high result on the international sports arena.

On the way to the gold medal, Alp Arslan performed in 4 matches, in 3 of which he gained the so-called clear victory with a difference of 10 points. He defeated a Japanese wrestler Shunsuke Mizusaki (12:2) at the start and left no chance for Ramazan Iskanderov from Kyrgyzstan (10:0) in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal, the Turkmen athlete wrestled with the 2023 Asian Champion in the under 74 kg category Yerkan Beksultanov from Kazakhstan, who failed to provide decent resistance and lost 0:6 to Alp Arslan.

Dmitry GORSHKOV,
NT