Enjo Waltschew

Enjo Dimow Waltschew ( Bulgarian Еньо Димов Вълчев ; born January 4, 1936 in Polski Gradez , Stara Sagora Oblast ; † February 15, 2014 ) was a Bulgarian wrestler . He was a lightweight Olympic champion in Tokyo in 1964 in free style.

Career

Enjo Waltschew began wrestling as a teenager at the Minor Dimitrovgrad association. He developed into an excellent freestyle wrestler who soon moved to the top Bulgarian clubs CSKA Sofia and Levski-Spartak Sofia. He first appeared on the international wrestling stage at the 1959 World Cup in Tehran , where he immediately became vice world champion in the lightweight category. He won five fights and was only defeated by the Soviet wrestler Wladimir Sinyawski .

In 1960 Waltschew won the bronze medal in the lightweight at the Olympic Games in Rome . He won against the German champion Horst Bergmann from Lichtenfels on points and lost again only to Wladimir Sinjawski.

In 1960 he started in an international match against the Federal Republic of Germany in the lightweight against Klaus Rost from Witten and defeated this on points. Also in 1963 and 1964 he played international matches against the FRG and again won against Horst Bermann and Klaus Rost.

Waltschew could not take part in the 1961 World Cup in Yokohama because Bulgaria did not send a team. In 1962 he was back at the World Cup in Toledo / USA and became world champion for the first time with five wins and one draw against Robert Jaganadze from the USSR . In 1963 he could not repeat this success. He won only two fights, tied against the Iranian Abdollah Movahed , lost to the Soviet wrestler Sarbeg Beriaschwili and ended up in 6th place.

At the Olympic Games in Rome in 1964 , Waltschew was able to successfully take revenge against Sarbeg Beriaschwili, drew again against Abdullah Movahed and won his other fights and was thus Olympic champion ahead of Klaus Rost from the FRG .

In the years 1965, 1966 and 1967 Enjo Waltschew was not quite as successful as in the years up to 1964. He was twice defeated at the world championships of those years against the outstanding Abdollah Movahed and reached 4th place in 1965, 6th place in 1966 and 1967 3rd place. He took 3rd place at the European Championships in Istanbul in 1967 , where only a surprising defeat against the Swede Jan Karlsson prevented him from winning the title.

Waltschew was very successful again in 1968. First he was European lightweight champion in Skopje and then he won the silver medal at the Olympic Games in Mexico City . He won thereby u. a. against Klaus Rost, Wayne Wells from the USA a . Jan Karlsson and lost again to Abdullah Movahed.

The year 1969 was similar to the year 1968 for Waltschew. He became European champion in his native Sofia and finished second behind Abdullah Movahed at the World Championships in Edmonton .

After this championship Enjo Waltschew resigned as an active wrestler. In September 2005 he was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame for his services to wrestling . He died in February 2014 of complications from a severe stroke .

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, F = free style, Le = lightweight, up to 1960 up to 67 kg, from 1961 to 1968 up to 70 kg and from 1969 up to 68 kg body weight)

• 1959, 2nd place , World Cup in Tehran , F, Le, with victories over Roger Bielle , France , Adolf Franke , GDR , Muhamad Ashraf-Din, Pakistan , draw against Hayrullah Sahin , Turkey a . Gyula Tóth , Hungary a . a loss to Vladimir Sinyavsky , USSR ;
• 1960, bronze medal , OS in Rome , F, Le, with victories over Horst Bergmann , FRG , Amir Jan Khalunder, Afghanistan , Hayrullah Sahin, Mustafa Tajik, Iran u. Bong Chang-Won, South Korea a . a loss to Vladimir Sinyavsky;
• 1962, 1st place , "Dan Kolew" tournament in Sofia , F, Le, in front of Musa Aliew, Bulgaria a. Hoffmann, Hungary;
• 1962, 1st place , Balkan Games in Athens , F, Le, before Hathazi, Romania a . Civelek, Turkey;
• 1962, 1st place , World Cup in Toledo / USA , F, Le, with victories over Gregory Ruth , USA, Kurt Fedier, Switzerland , Fritz Boger, FRG, Kazuo Abe, Japan and others. Osvaldo Ferrari, Italy a . a tie against Robert Jaganadze , USSR;
• 1963, 6th place , World Cup in Sofia , F, Le, with victories over Klaus Rost , FRG a. Garibaldo Nizzola , Italy, a tie against Abdollah Movahed , Iran u. a loss to Sarbeg Beriashvili , USSR;
• 1964, gold medal , OS in Tokyo , F, Le, with victories over Than Kook Chin, Malaysia , Arto Savolainen, Finland , Udey Chand, India a . Klaus Rost, a tie against Abdullah Movahed u. despite a loss to Sarbeg Beriashvili;
• 1965, 4th place , World Cup in Manchester , F, Le, with victories over Alfred Friedrich, Switzerland, C. Otto, South Africa a . Erkki Penttilä, Finland a. Defeats against Sarbeg Beriaschwili, Abdullah Movahed and others. Mahmut Atalay , Turkey;
• 1966, 5th place , World Championships in Toledo / USA, F, Le, with victories over Sarbeg Beriaschwili a. Werner Holzer, Switzerland, a tie against Seyit Ahmet Ağralı , Turkey a. a loss to Tong Ku-Jung, South Korea ;
• 1967, 3rd place , EM in Istanbul , F, Le, with victories over Waldemar Dasal, Poland , Bruno Hartmann, Austria , Seyit Ahmet Ağralı u. Klaus Rost, a draw against Sarbeg Beriaschwili u. a loss to Jan Karlsson , Sweden ;
• 1967, 3rd place , World Cup in New Delhi , F, Le, with victories over Jan Karlsson, Raul Lopez, Mexico , Udey Chand u. Akihiro Sato, Japan, a tie against Sarbeg Beriaschwili u. a loss to Abdullah Movahed;
• 1968, 1st place , EM in Skopje , F, Le, with victories over Kemal Dagdeviren, Turkey, Wolfgang Quente, GDR, Ibrahim Yonuzi, Yugoslavia a . Klaus Rost u. a tie against Yuri Gussow , USSR;
• 1968, silver medal , OS in Mexico City , F, le, with victories over Jan Karlsson, Wayne Wells , USA , Muhamad Taj, Pakistan a. Seyit Ahmet Ağralı, a draw against Sarbeg Beriaschwili u. a loss to Abdullah Movahed;
• 1969, 1st place , EM in Sofia , F, Le, with victories over Károly Buzas, Hungary, Tadeusz Godyn, Poland, Josef Engel, CSSR u. Nodar Hohaschwili , USSR a. one tie against Nihat Kabanli , Turkey;
• 1969, 2nd place , World Championships in Edmonton , F, Le, with victories over Nodar Hohaschwili, Dandsandardschaagiin Sereeter , Mongolia a. Segundo Olmedo, Panama et al. a loss to Abdullah Movahed

swell

• 1) Div. Issues of the specialist magazine "Athletik" from 1959 to 1969,
• 2) Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Database, 1976

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ TheMat.com from September 13, 2005 ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on July 8, 2010 (English) 
2. ↑ Еньо Вълчев - Първият българин с трите най-големи титли ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 17, 2014 (Bulgarian)