The Russian, who started the year by suffering a shock exit from the Ivan Poddubny tournament on home soil in Tyumen, capped off his pre-Olympic preparations with an 8-0 technical fall over fellow Rio 2016 qualifier Yurisandy Hernandez Rios of Cuba in the 75 kilograms final at the Grand Prix of Spain in Madrid. 

In addition to Vlasov, three more world champions and rankings leaders were also in action this month, wrapping up their Rio 2016 preparations with victories at the German Grand Prix in Dortmund.

Home favourite Frank Staebler defeated 2015 world bronze medallist Artem Surkov of Russia 2-1 for the 66kg crown and his third tournament title since winning on the global stage in September.

Turkey’s Selcuk Cebi and Riza Kayaalp, world champions at 80kg and 130kg respectively, also recorded victories in Dortmund to take some momentum into next month’s Olympic Games. 

Cebi, who qualified for Rio 2016 at 75kg, edged Kim Hyeon-Woo of South Korea, 3-1, in the 80kg final to ensure himself the top spot in what is a non-Olympic weight category.

Kayaalp stopped Russian National Championships runner-up Vitali Shchur, 5-1, in the 130kg final to tighten his grip on the number one ranking before heading to Brazil.

One week later, world silver medallist Mijain Lopez Nunez of Cuba managed a 6-0 win over Russia’s Sergey Semenov for the number two ranking at super heavyweight. 

Other world gold medallists on their way to Rio 2016 at the top of the rankings are Cuba’s Ismael Borrero Molina at 59kg, despite being out of action over the last 10 months, and Azerbaijan's Rasul Chunayev, the 71kg champion who qualified at 66kg in May.

Ukraine's Zhan Belenyuk won the Milone Trophy Matteo Pellicone Memorial crown in the Italian city of Sassari in May to sew up the number one ranking at 85kg.

Two-time world bronzemedallist Viktor Lorincz of Hungary fashioned a 3-0 win in Madrid over Baku 2015 European Games champion David Chakvetadze of Russia to climb to number two in the rankings.

Armenia’s Artur Aleksanyan is the only Greco-Roman world champion in 2015 not to finish on top of his respective category. 

Aleksanyan slipped to number two at 98kg after a loss in the European Championship finals to Russia’s Nikita Melnikov. 

Ironically, top-ranked Melnikov is not on his country’s list of entries for Rio 2016, while Aleksanyan, a winner at the Milone Trophy Matteo Pellicone Memorial, heads to Brazil as one of the early favourites at heavyweight.