Arajik Geworgjan

Arajik (Ara) Hratschi Geworgjan ( Armenian Արայիկ (Արա) Հրաչի Գևորգյան ; born January 22, 1973 in Artaschat , Armenian SSR , Soviet Union ) is a former Soviet or Armenian wrestler . He was a three-time lightweight world champion in free style.

Career

Arajik Geworgjan grew up in Artaschat and started wrestling there as a teenager in 1984. He was trained by Rasmik Goletjan, Stepan Sarkisjan and Araik Bagdadjan over the course of his career. He worked exclusively in free style. As an adult, he was 1.65 meters tall and initially wrestled in the light weight and later in the welterweight division. He was a stocky, very powerful athlete. After Armenia became independent, he was a member of the Trade Union Sport Club Ararat Artashat . Arajik Geworgjan made a living from wrestling and became a coach after his playing days. He is also very well known in wrestling circles in Germany , because he wrestled for several years for KSV Aalen 05 and KSV Witten 07 in the German Bundesliga.

He made his debut on the international wrestling mat, starting for the Soviet Union, at the 1990 World Junior Championships in Istanbul in bantamweight. He disappointed at this tournament, in which only young people under 18 years of age had the right to start, because he only finished 9th. A year later he was, again in Istanbul, Junior European Champion (Juniors) in the featherweight division in front of Fulvio Verde, Italy and Yüksel Şanlı , Turkey .

At the European Junior Championships 1992 the Espoirs, d. H. the age group up to the age of 20, in Székesfehérvár he competed for the first time for the newly independent Armenia and again won the European championship before the Estonian Küllo Kõiv and the Georgian Zaza Zazirow .

In 1993, Arajik Geworgjan won the European Championship silver medal in Istanbul at his first start in the lightweight senior division , losing just under points in the final against Zaza Zazirow, who was just 20 years old, who started for Ukraine from 1993 . At the Junior World Championships (Espoirs) in Athens in 1993 he completed his successes as a junior, because he was there junior world champion in the lightweight before Yüksel Şanlı and Igor Kupejew from Russia .

He continued his successes at the 1994 European Championships in Rome . He was there behind the experienced Russian Vadim Bogijew Vice European Champion . This series of successes broke at the 1994 World Championships in Istanbul . He lost there early against the Cuban Jesús E. Rodríguez Garzón , with which he was eliminated and only finished 11th.

This was followed by the most successful years in Arajik Geworgjan's career. Between 1995 and 1998 he won four titles in eight international championships, including three world championships and a total of seven medals. At the most important competition of those years, the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, he had to be content with a 5th place.

This series of successes began with a 3rd place at the European Championships in 1995 in Friborg in the lightweight behind his old rivals Wadim Bogijew and Yüksel Şanlı. This was followed in 1995 at the World Cup in Atlanta with the first title win before the all surprising Iranians Akbar Fallah , Jesús E. Rodríguez Garzón and Wadim Bogijew.

At the European Championships in Budapest in 1996 , he only lost in the final against Vadim Bogijew and was runner-up in Europe. At the Olympic Games in Atlanta he won his first two fights over Ahmat Al-Osta from Syria and Oleg Gogol from Belarus . In the third fight he lost to Townsend Saunders from the United States with 0: 4 techn. With points, winning the Olympic gold medal was a long way off. When he then lost to Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet from Cuba , he was completely out of the medal ranks. A win over Hwang Sang-ho , South Korea , only put him in 5th place.

In 1997, Arajik Geworgjan had long since recovered from this disappointing performance. This was already shown by the European Championships this year in Warsaw , where he was also European champion in the lightweight for the first time . He defeated u. a. Zaza Zazirow and in the final Yüksel Şanlı, whom he narrowly scored 2-1 techn. Points hit. He was just as successful at the 1997 World Cup in Krasnoyarsk . With victories over Eloy Urbano from Mexico , Ryusaburo Katsu from Japan , David Ghanbari from Iran, Zaza Zazirow and Hwang Sang-ho, he secured his second world title.

At the European Championships in 1998 in Bratislava he started in the welterweight division for the first time and was immediately successful in this new weight class. He fought his way up to the final, in which he met Alexander Leipold from Germany. In a dogged fight, there were no scores within the fight time of 8 minutes. Therefore the judges had to decide and they gave Leipold the victory. Arajik Geworgjan became vice European champion. For the 1998 World Cup in Tehran , he then trained again in the lightweight. A measure that paid off, as he became world champion in this weight class for the third time. His opponent in the final battle was Zaza Zazirow, whom he defeated on points.

At the beginning of 1999 Arajik Geworgjan was injured so that he could not compete at the European Championships. At the 1999 World Cup in Ankara , however, he was back in the lightweight division. He won his first three fights there, but then surprisingly lost to the American Lincoln McIlravy , with which he was eliminated and finished in 5th place.

In the 2000 Olympic year he then concentrated entirely on the Olympic Games in Sydney . But there he lost his first fight against Arsen Gitinow from Russia . The following victories over Nikolaos Loizidis from Greece and Edison Hurtado Lerma from Colombia only brought him to 7th place.

After this renewed disappointment at the Olympic Games, he resigned from international competition. However, in 2003 he made a comeback, probably with the intention of finally winning a medal at the 2004 Olympic Games. He started at the European welterweight championship this year in Riga . But he had to realize that it didn't have to be so easy, because he lost his first fight there against Murad Gaidarow from Belarus and only finished 6th after two victorious fights. At the 2003 World Cup in New York , after defeating Gela Saghirashvili from Georgia and defeating Murad Gaidarov again, he only finished 19th.

In 2004 he won third place at a qualifying tournament in Bratislava in the welterweight category behind Joe E. Williams from the United States and Iván Fundora from Cuba to qualify for the Olympic Games in Athens . Before that, he started at the European Championships in Ankara , where he again lost to Murad Gaidarow and only finished 7th. Even at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, he remained medalless in the welterweight division. He first won there over the Briton Nathanael Leedon Ackerman, but lost his next fight against Gennadi Lalijew from Kazakhstan .

After that he finally said goodbye to international matting. Until 2008 he still wrestled for KSV Witten 07 in the German Bundesliga.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class
1990	9.	Junior World Championships (Juniors) in Istanbul	Bantam	Winner: Hassan M. Duon, Iran ahead of Seo Min-kyu, South Korea
1991	1.	Junior European Championship (Juniors) in Istanbul	feather	in front of Fulvio Verde, Italy , Yüksel Şanlı , Turkey a . Falk Diener, Germany
1992	1.	Junior European Championship (Espoirs) in Székesfehérvár	Light	in front of Kullo Koiv, Estonia , Zaza Zazirow , Georgia a . Andre Toch, Germany
1993	2.	EM in Istanbul	Light	behind Zaza Zazirow, Ukraine , in front of Gotcha Makojew, Russia a . Fatih Özbas , Turkey
1993	1.	Junior World Championships (Espoirs) in Athens	Light	before Yüksel Şanlı u. Igor Kupejew, Russia
1994	2.	EM in Rome	Light	behind Wadim Bogijew , Russia, in front of Roman Motrovich , Ukraine a. Ralf Lyding , Germany
1994	11.	World Cup in Istanbul	Light	Winner: Alexander Leipold , Germany ahead of Jesús E. Rodríguez Garzón , Cuba a . Kenibek Omuraliew, Kyrgyzstan
1995	3.	EM in Friborg	Light	behind Wadim Bogijew u. Yüksel Şanlı, in front of Zaza Zazirow u. Plamen Paskalew, Bulgaria
1995	1.	World Cup in Atlanta	Light	before Akbar Fallah, Iran , Jesús E. Rodríguez Garzón, Wadim Bogijew a. Yüksel Şanlı
1996	2.	EM in Budapest	Light	behind Wadim Bogijew, in front of Zaza Zazirow, Kullo Koiv, Estonia u. Elkhad Alachwerdijew, Azerbaijan
1996	5.	OS in Atlanta	Light	with victories over Ahmat Al-Osta , Syria a . Oleg Gogol , Belarus , defeats against Townsend Saunders , USA a . Yosvany Sánchez Larrudet , Cuba a. a victory over Hwang Sang-ho , South Korea
1997	1.	EM in Warsaw	Light	with victories over Zaza Zazirow, Fabien Masiero, France , Janos Forizs, Hungary a. Yüksel Şanlı
1997	1.	World Cup in Krasnoyarsk	Light	with victories over Eloy Urbano, Mexico , Ryusaburo Katsu, Japan , David Ghanbari, Iran, Zaza Zazirow u. Hwang Sang-ho
1998	2.	EM in Bratislava	Welter	with victories over Eduard Alexejenko, Belarus, Christoph Freyer, Switzerland a . Árpád Ritter , Hungary a. a loss to Alexander Leipold
1998	1.	World Cup in Tehran	Light	with victories over Lincoln McIlravy , USA, Ivan Diaconu, Romania , Sergei Demtschenko , Belarus, Igor Kupejew, Uzbekistan and others. Zaza Zazirow
1999	5.	World Cup in Ankara	Light	with victories over Ivan Diaconu, Romania, Tibor Copik, Slovakia a . Zaza Zazirow u. a loss to Lincoln McIlravy
2000	7th	OS in Sydney	Light	with a defeat against Arsen Gitinow , Russia a. Victories over Nikolaos Loizidis , Greece a . Edison Hurtado Lerma , Colombia
2003	6th	EM in Riga	Welter	after a defeat against Murad Gaidarov , Belarus, etc. Wins over Ivan Diaconu u. Nathanael Leedon Ackerman, UK
2003	19th	World Cup in New York	Welter	with a victory over Gela Saghiraschwili , Georgia a. a loss to Murad Gaidarov
2004	3.	Olympic qualification tournament in Bratislava	Welter	behind Joe E. Williams , USA a. Iván Fundora , Cuba, before Daniel Igali , Canada a . Krystian Brzozowski , Poland
2004	7th	EM in Ankara	Welter	after a defeat by Murad Gaidarow a. a victory over Nathanael Leedon Ackerman
2004	8th.	OS in Athens	Welter	with a victory over Nathanael Leedon Ackerman u. a loss to Gennady Laliyev , Kazakhstan

Note: all competitions in free style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, bantamweight, up to 58 kg, featherweight, up to 63 kg, lightweight, up to 1996 up to 68 kg, from 1967 to 2001 up to 69 kg, since 2002 up to 66 kg body weight, welter weight, from 1997 to 2001 up to 76 kg, since 2002 up to 74 kg body weight.

swell

• Website of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• Trade journal Der Ringer

Web links

• Profile of Arajik Geworgjan at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Arajik Geworgjan in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )