More than 600 of the top junior wrestlers aged 18 to 20 years old; representing 58 national wrestling federations from around the world, from all five continental organisations will be battling it out in the Arena Armeetz in the Bulgarian capital, starting today until next Sunday (August 18).

Wrestlers will compete across three Olympic styles, including Greco-Roman, men's freestyle and women's freestyle, and they will be hoping that the rivalries made this week will be renewed in seven year's time at the 2020 Olympics as wrestling awaits the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s decision next month on whether it will be included on the Olympic programme following Rio 2016.

The Junior World Championships can be a breeding ground for future Olympic and world champions with London 2012 men's 55 kilogrammes Greco-Roman gold medallist and five-time world senior champion Hamid Soryan of Iran winning gold in 2005, while Russia's Dyamal Otarsultanov was freestyle champion in 2006 and 2007 before going on to become Olympic 55kg freestyle champion in London last year.


Last year's Championships in Thailand saw European wrestlers dominate the medal table, winning 61 of the 96 medals on offer including 13 golds, while 10 went to Asian competitors and just the one to the Americas.

It may well be a similar story this time round in Sofia as European nations will look to maintain their dominance.

Newly crowned European junior champions Karapet Chalyan of Armenia and Georgia's Iakobi Kajaia will be among the favourites to add world titles in their respective Greco-Roman categories of 74kg and 120kg, following their bronze medals in Thailand last year.

Another Greco-Roman wrestler, Musa Evloev of Russia will look to build on his promising performance at the Ivan Poddubny tournament back in January where he finished second.

The double European junior champion placed a disappointing 11th at last year's Championships in the men's 96kg category.

In the men's freestyle competition, Ruslan Surkhaev of Azerbaijan won the European crown at 55kg after finishing with the world silver medal at 50kg in Thailand, while European champion Geno Petriashvili of Georgia will look to improve on his world bronze medal at 120kg last year.


The women's freestyle competition will also see a strong European line-up with the main threat expected to come from Japanese wrestlers.

Patimat Bagomedova of Azerbaijan will be one to watch as she looks to continue a successful period in her career on the mat which started with gold at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore followed by a European junior title, a senior European bronze in March this year as well as silver at the Kazan 2013 Universiade last month.

Finland's Petra Olli won her second European junior crown last month and will be seeking to improve on her bronze medal from last year's junior World Championships.

Another Singapore 2010 gold medallist Yu Miyahara is expected to lead the Japanese challenge in Sofia to add to its list of nine junior world champions over the past two years.

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