The man in charge of refereeing at the 2018 World Wrestling Championships Antonio Silvestri, not pictured, was given a surprise award tonight for his service to the sport ©UWW

The President of United World Wrestling’s (UWW) Refereeing Commission, Antonio Silvestri, was given a surprise award tonight during the final session of the 2018 World Championships in Budapest, in recognition of his service to the sport.

The German, who was responsible for the officiating at this week’s event, was presented with the award by UWW President Nenad Lalovic during a special ceremony here at the Papp László SportArena.

Having just given awards to two other officials, Lalovic then announced that he also wished to recognise the work of Silvestri.

"This award is in recognition of the personality and skills in officiating," Lalovic said, having just presented the other two awards.

"But it's not only that.

"It's an award for [the] high moral and ethical values of those people.

The award was presented by UWW President Nenad Lalovic, left ©Getty Images
The award was presented by UWW President Nenad Lalovic, left ©Getty Images

"We are honoured that they serve the sport."

Lalovic then announced that he wanted to present one further prize.

"There is always one who propose all this, but is never rewarded," he added.

"I want to award today, by surprise, our head of the officiating division, Mr Antonio Silvestri."

According to UWW’s website, the Refereeing Commission of which Silvestri is President is tasked with gathering information on existing referees, proposing rule changes, implementing an educational system for referees and among other things, proposing systems for the training of referees.

The Commission was also responsible for picking the referees to officiate at this week’s Championships, which featured 901 matches in total.

Russia finished top of the medals table with 10 golds, a silver and two bronze medals.