Aimo Muchtenpää

Aimo Matias Mänenpää (born January 30, 1937 in Isokyrö ) is a former Finnish wrestler . He was Vice European Champion in 1969 and Olympic participant in 1964 and 1972 in Greco-Roman style.

Career

Aimo Mänenpää started wrestling as a teenager. He was initially a member of the Oulun Pyrintö sports club . After becoming a police officer, he became a member of the Jyväskylän Poliisi-Urheilijat sports club . At the national level he wrestled in both styles, the Greco-Roman and the free style. At international championships he concentrated entirely on the Greco-Roman style.

In 1963 he was the first Finnish champion. He won the title in free style in light heavyweight (at that time up to 97 kg body weight). Although he was already 26 years old at the time of his first title win, in the course of his long career up to 1973 he won another 20 Finnish championship titles in both styles.

In 1963 he was also in a Finnish wrestling team that wrestled against Sweden. He lost to Per Svensson , but defeated Lennart Persson . In 1964 he qualified for participation in the Olympic Games in Tokyo . He defeated there in the light heavyweight Akira Nakaura from Japan and Eugen Wiesberger from Austria each on points and lost to the eventual Olympic champion Bojan Radew from Bulgaria on shoulders, which he was eliminated because he had reached the maximum number of faulty points of six. He came in 10th place in the final accounts.

In 1966 Aimo Mypenpää performed both at the European Championships in Essen and at the World Championships in Toledo , Ohio very honorable. Both times he finished 5th in the light heavyweight division. In Essen, he won over Jürgen Klinge from the GDR , Josip Čorak from Yugoslavia and Tore Hem from Norway . In Toledo he won over Yacoub Abousalloum from Lebanon and Gets Johannes Viljoen from the Netherlands and fought against Nicolae Martinescu from Romania .

Aimo Mänenpää also competed in the 1967 European Championships in Minsk . He also came there to two wins before losing to Vasily Merkulow from the USSR , which meant that he was eliminated again because of 6 faults. He came in 7th place. In 1968 he took 3rd place at the Nordic Championship behind Per Svensson and Tore Hem , but could not qualify for the European Championships or the Olympic Games in Mexico City that year .

In 1969 he took advantage of the moment in Modena when most of the very strong teams from the Eastern Bloc countries were missing from the European Championship and won in the heavyweight division, a weight class that reached its limit of 100 kg in 1969 after a weight class reform by the international wrestling federation had, with victories over Gürbüz Lü from Turkey and Francesco Filipponi from Italy and a defeat in the final against Per Svensson an EM silver medal .

After a two-year break from international championships, Aimo Mänenpää made a comeback in 1972. He won at the European Championships in Katowice with victories over Marin Kolew from Bulgaria and Leif Nordström from Sweden and defeats against Nikolai Jakowenko from the USSR a. Nicolae Martinescu took a good 6th place. He then also managed to qualify again for participation in the Olympic Games in Munich . In Munich he came in the heavyweight division after defeats against Christo Ignatow from Bulgaria and Tore Hem but only on 11th place.

After a 2nd place at the Nordic Championships in 1973 in the super heavyweight division, he ended his international wrestling career.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class
1964	10.	OS in Tokyo	Semi-difficult	with victories over Akira Nakaura, Japan a . Eugen Wiesberger, Austria a . a loss to Bojan Radew , Bulgaria
1965	2.	Nordic championship	Semi-difficult	behind Per Svensson , Sweden , in front of Tore Hem , Norway
1966	5.	EM in Essen	Semi-difficult	with victories over Jürgen Klinge , GDR , Josip Čorak , Yugoslavia a . Tore Hem et al. Losses against Alexei Karmazkich , USSR a . Per Svensson
1966	5.	World Cup in Toledo (Ohio)	Semi-difficult	with victories over Yacoub Abousalloum, Lebanon a . Gets Johannes Viljoen, Netherlands , a tie against Nicolae Martinescu , Romania u. a loss to Ferenc Kiss , Hungary
1967	4th	"Ivan Podubbny" tournament in Moscow	Semi-difficult	behind Vasily Merkulow and Nikolai Jakowenko , bde. USSR u. Ferenc Kiss
1967	7th	EM in Minsk	Semi-difficult	with victories over Renato Zanatta, Italy a . Gürbüz Lü , Turkey a . a loss to Vasily Merkulov
1968	3.	Nordic championship	Semi-difficult	behind Tore Hem u. Per Svensson
1969	2.	EM in Modena	Heavy	with victories over Gürbüz Lü u. Francesco Filipponi, Italy a. a loss to Per Svensson
1972	6th	EM in Katowice	Heavy	with victories over Marin Kolew , Bulgaria a. Leif Nordström, Sweden a. Defeats against Nikolai Jakowenko u. Nicolae Martinescu
1972	11.	OS in Munich	Heavy	after defeats against Christo Ignatow , Bulgaria a. Gates Hem
1973	2.	Nordic championship	Super heavy	behind Gunder Gundersen, Norway , in front of Lennart Svensson, Sweden

Note: all competitions in the Greco-Roman style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, light heavyweight, up to 1968 up to 97 kg, from 1969 up to 90 kg, heavyweight, up to 1968 over 97 kg, from 1969 up to 100 kg, super heavyweight, from 1969 over 100 kg body weight

Finnish championships

Between 1963 and 1973 Aimo Muchtenpää won a total of 21 Finnish championship titles in both styles in the light, heavy or super heavyweight classes.

swell

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976,
• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• Athletics magazine

Web links

• Profile of Aimo Muchtenpää at the Institute for Applied Training Science