Pridnestrovian wrestlers place high at Junior European Championships

The Junior European Wrestling Championships finished in Katowice, Poland, June 22

Moldova's team included three representatives of the Tiraspol Boxing and Wrestling School, coached by Vladimir Gotishan (freestyle wrestling) and Alexandre Shemetov (Greco-Roman wrestling), the Vesti PMR news agency reports.

Ivan Zamfirov (50 kg) became a silver medalist in freestyle wrestling. He defeated wrestlers from Germany, Georgia and Turkey, but in the final lost to Russia's Abdula Shakhbanov, the cadet world champion.

Tiraspol's Dmitri Chakusta (96 kg) has won a silver medal at the Cadet European Wrestling Championships this year and, being younger than his opponents, qualified for the Youth Olympic Games. In the very first combat he lost to a German wrestler, who later won a bronze medal, with gold going to a Ukrainian athlete.

Ivan Polishchuk (96 kg) first defeated a Greco-Roman wrestler from Denmark, but lost to a Byelorussian, who qualified for the final. Then Polishchuk lost the first bronze medal combat to a Pole and finally finished eighth. A Norwegian wrestler became a champion.