Today, on April 10, the 2025 European Greco-Roman Wrestling Championship kicked off in Bratislava. On the first day of competition, three wrestlers from the Armenian national team successfully advanced to the semifinals and will continue their fight for medals.
Five athletes represented Armenia today, and three of them reached the semifinal stage.
55 kg: Manvel Khachatryan confidently defeated the decorated Turkish wrestler Emre Mutlu with a score of 9:0 and reached the semifinals, where he will face Eldaniz Azizli from Azerbaijan.
63 kg: Karen Aslanyan achieved a lightning-fast victory over Poland's Mayrbek Salimov, finishing the match in just 30 seconds with a score of 8:0. In the semifinals, he will face Andrey Semenchuk of Ukraine.
77 kg: Malkhas Amoyan started the tournament from the round of 16 and secured two confident wins. In his first match, he defeated Mateusz Bernatek from Poland in just one minute with a score of 8:0. Then, in the quarterfinals, he overcame the reigning U23 European Champion Alexandru Solovei from Moldova. In the semifinals, Amoyan will face Hayk Mnatsakanyan — an Armenian wrestler competing for Bulgaria, who defeated Hungary’s Zoltan Levai.
Additionally, two other Armenian wrestlers still have a chance to fight for bronze through the repechage. They are Karen Khachatryan (87 kg) and David Ovasapyan (130 kg), whose opponents reached the semifinals.
Khachatryan lost to Olympic champion Semuen Novikov (Bulgaria) with a score of 3:6 and is now waiting for Novikov’s semifinal win to enter the repechage round. Ovasapyan lost 1:1 to Muhammet Bakir (Turkey) — according to the new rule, in case of a tie, the wrestler who scored the first point wins. If Novikov and Bakir win their semifinal bouts, Khachatryan and Ovasapyan will continue competing for bronze medals tomorrow.
The semifinals will take place today at 18:45 Yerevan time.