Sweden’s Alex Kessidis broke Azerbaijan’s stranglehold on today’s Greco-Roman gold medals ©UWW

Sweden’s Alex Kessidis broke Azerbaijan’s stranglehold on today’s Greco-Roman gold medals by winning the 80 kilograms title at the European Under-23 Wrestling Championships in Szombathely in Hungary.

Kessidis defeated returning champion Gela Bolkvadze of Georgia 4-2 in the final at the Arena Savaria for his first title in a major international competition.

He finished second to his rival at last year’s event in Bulgarian city Ruse.

"I’m very happy with the medal," Kessidis said.

"I was happy last year, but this is a good medal."

Kessidis secured victory when the officiating crew awarded him two points in the final minute of the bout as Bolkvadze continued to wrestle defensively.

"My job is to lock and throw," the Swede added.

"And that’s what I wanted to do today, but my opponent had other ideas."

The bronze medals went to Azerbaijan’s Eltun Vazirzade and Ukraine’s Andrii Antoniuk at the expense of Belarus’ Yahor Kasiankou and Hungary’s Peter Nagy respectively.

Azerbaijan's Murad Mammadov came away with the 59kg Greco-Roman gold medal ©UWW
Azerbaijan's Murad Mammadov came away with the 59kg Greco-Roman gold medal ©UWW

Azerbaijan won the other three gold medals on the first evening of wrestling in the classic style.

In the first gold medal bout, last year’s runner-up Murad Mammadov slipped behind Zhambolat Lokyaev of Russia for two points midway through the second period for a 4-1 win at 59kg.

Georgia’s Dato Chkhartishvili defeated Moldova’s Alexandre Biciu to one of the two bronze medals and was joined on the third step of the podium by Lithuania’s Justas Petravicius, who beat Turkey’s Abdurrahman Altan.

In the 71kg final, Youth Olympic Games champion Islambek Dadov stunned junior world champion Ramaz Zoidze of Georgia with a technical fall only two minutes into the first period to win 10-2. 

Ukraine’s Artur Politaiev overcame Turkey’s Murat Dag to take a bronze medal along with Hungary’s Robert Attila Fritsch, a narrow victor over Italy’s Riccardo Vito Abbrescia.

The evening’s finale at 98kg saw 2014 junior world champion Orkhan Nuriyev receive a pair of passivity points in the first period and add a step-out point in the second for a 3-1 win over Matti Kuosmanen of Finland.

Former under-23 champions Fatih Baskoy of Turkey and Muhammed Sever of Germany won the bronze medals with Russia’s Aleksandr Golovin and Ukraine’s Mykola Krysov just missing out on the podium.