Turkey's Riza Kayaalp will try to make it five in a row for continental crowns at the European Wrestling Championships ©UWW

An array of world and Olympic medallists are set to compete at the European Wrestling Championships, due to get underway in Latvia’s capital Riga tomorrow.

The six-day event at Arena Riga will feature four days of freestyle and women’s wrestling followed by Greco-Roman action on Saturday (March 12) and Sunday (March 13).

More than a dozen Olympic medallists are on the entry lists, including the reigning 84 kilograms freestyle champion Sharif Sharifov of Azerbaijan and Russia’s Islambek Albiev, who took top honours at Beijing 2008 in the 66kg Greco-Roman category.

Among the world champions named on the preliminary rosters are Italy’s Frank Chamizo and Turkey’s Taha Akgul in freestyle and Ukrainian duo Oksana Herhel and Yulia Tkach in women’s wrestling.

Herhel and Tkach headline a squad that features five world champions, including Aleksandra Kohut at 48kg, Anna Vasilenko at 58kg and Alina Makhynia at 69kg.

Ukraine’s other squad members - Yulia Khavaldzhy, Tatyana Kit and Alla Cherkasova - have all won bronze medals on the world stage and will compete at 53kg, 55kg and 75kg respectively.

Yulia Tkach is among the headline names in the Ukrainian women's squad
Yulia Tkach is among the headline names in the Ukrainian women's squad ©UWW

In the classic style, current world champions include Germany’s Frank Staebler, Azerbaijan’s Rasul Chunayev and Ukraine’s Zhan Belenyuk.

They are joined by two-time winners Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia and Riza Kayaalp of Turkey.

Aleksanyan will be seeking his fourth European Championships crown after sitting out last year’s European Games in Baku and Kayaalp will try to make it five in a row for continental crowns.

On the first day of wrestling tomorrow, Azerbaijan sends out European Games champion Maria Stadnyk at 48kg, vying for her sixth overall European crown.

The home crowd will have a chance to cheer for local favourite Anastasija Grigorjeva, a three-time European champion, at 63kg.

Grigorjeva will have her hands full though with 2014 world champion Tkach and two-time world silver medallist Taybe Yusein of Bulgaria.

On the men’s side, 86kg will be missing its biggest name in Abdulrashid Sadulaev as Yarygin Grand Prix winner Shamil Kudiyamagomedov steps in to fill the Russian void at middleweight.

The men’s lightest category, 57kg, could also be wide open without world champion Vladimir Khinchigashvili of Georgia or European Games gold medallist Viktor Lebedev of Russia.