Janes Nazaryan has won gold at the U17 World Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships in Baku, defeating Russia’s Aslan Dzuev 4:3 in the 71 kg final on Wednesday, July 29, and securing his second consecutive world title.
The Armenian flag was raised and the national anthem played in his honor at the medal ceremony, footage of which was released by the Wrestling Federation of Armenia. Sections of the crowd booed as Nazaryan was presented with his medal and again during the anthem.
Nazaryan trailed 1:3 after the opening period before scoring from par terre in the second to complete the comeback, then carried the Armenian flag around the mat as sections of the crowd booed.
He reached the final having won all 4 of his preliminary bouts by technical superiority for a combined score of 34:0, beating Norway’s Martin Letvik, Turkey’s Resit Yuruk, Hungary’s Ervin Czuczor and Bulgaria’s Kristiyan Krastev. He had won the U17 European Championships by a combined 37:0.
Nazaryan won his first world title at 65 kg in Athens last year and moved up to 71 kg for Baku. Dzuev made the same jump, having won the U17 European title at 65 kg and beaten Armenia’s Zaven Mejlumyan 6:3 in that final earlier this year.
Gevorg Harutyunyan took bronze at 51 kg the same day, beating Georgia’s Saba Abashidze 5:0 and closing Armenia’s Greco-Roman campaign with 1 gold and 2 bronze medals. He reached that bout through the repechage, beating Kuanyshbek Zhangazhol of Kazakhstan, the reigning U17 world champion at 45 kg, 7:6.
Harutyunyan’s only loss came in the tournament’s single Armenian-Azerbaijani bout. He held the lead inside the final minute of his quarterfinal against Azerbaijan’s Abdurrahman Huseynli before the Azerbaijani corner challenged, and the review reversed the score for a 6:4 defeat.
Armenia’s first medal came on Tuesday, when Ararat Avetisyan won bronze at 48 kg with an 8:0 win over Hungary’s Benedek Tombor. The Armenian flag was raised in Baku at that ceremony and again for Harutyunyan on Wednesday.
Armenia is represented in Baku by 16 wrestlers, 10 in Greco-Roman under head coach Gagik Khachatryan and 6 in freestyle. The delegation is the first from Armenia to compete at a tournament in Azerbaijan since the 2015 European Games, an absence of 11 years, and its participation remained in doubt until the final days before the tournament over security concerns.
Armenia’s previous medals in Azerbaijan were Yuri Patrikeyev’s bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Baku and Mihran Harutyunyan’s silver at the 2015 European Games.
The freestyle competition begins on Friday, July 31, and runs through Sunday, August 2.
