Gennady Andreevich Sapunov

Gennady Andreevich Sapunow , Russian Геннадий Андреевич Сапунов , (born December 5, 1938 ) is a former Soviet wrestler and current coach . He was world champion in 1963 and 1965 and European champion in 1967 in the Greco-Roman style in featherweight and lightweight.

Career

Gennadi Sapunov started as a teenager with rings . He was a member of the sports organization "Spartak" and developed into an excellent wrestler in Greco-Roman. Style. He was one of the best Soviet wrestlers in this style even in the junior division. International championships did not take place in the junior division at his time. Well prepared by the then Soviet head coach Below, Gennady Sapunov appeared for the first time as the starter of the Soviet Union in the featherweight division at the 1963 World Cup in Helsingborg .

In Helsingborg he first scored four wins and in the final faced the three-time silver medalist at the Olympic Games and multiple world champion Imre Polyák from Hungary . He managed to wrestle with this experienced wrestler in a draw. A result that was enough for him to win the world title.

The participation in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 missed Gennady Sapunov because he failed in the Soviet qualification to Roman Rurua . Interestingly enough, Roman Rurua failed in the fight for the Olympic gold medal in the featherweight division against Imre Polyak, who finally became Olympic champion on his fourth start .

In 1965 Gennady Sapunov came to a start at the World Championships in Tampere at very short notice . He was actually intended as a substitute for the featherweight. The Soviet starter in the lightweight Dawid Gwandseladze injured himself in the final training, so that Gennady Sapunov had to step in at short notice. But he made the best of this situation, because, although he had some weight disadvantages compared to his competitors, he became world champion in lightweight. The decisive factor for this triumph was a draw in the last fight against Stevan Horvat from Yugoslavia .

Before this World Cup, Gennady Sapunov was with the Soviet national team for two international matches in the Federal Republic of Germany . He was in Dortmund and Ludwigshafen am Rhein in featherweight each against the Stuttgart Berthold Oßwald from TSVgg Stuttgart-Münster 1875/99 , which he defeated on points.

In 1966 Gennadi Sapunow started as a full lightweight at the World Championships in Toledo / USA for the first time. He fought his way back to the final in Toledo, but lost to Stevan Horvat there on points and was "only" vice world champion. At the European Championships in Minsk in 1967 he defeated u. a. the two German starters Klaus Pohl from Halle and Franz Schmitt from Mainz. A draw in the final fight against Eero Tapio from Finland was enough for him to win the title in Minsk. He did not start at the 1967 World Cup.

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City , Gennady Sapunov naturally aimed for Olympic victory. In his first three fights he faced very tough opponents. He was able to win these fights against Stevan Horvat, Jan Karlsson from Sweden and Vítězslav Mácha from the CSSR and was already well on the way to great success. In the fourth round, however, he was sensationally defeated by Klaus Pohl. Demotivated, he was defeated by the Greek Petros Galaktopoulos and ended up in 6th place, which was disappointing for him.

After these Olympic Games, Gennady Sapunov ended his international wrestling career. He completed a sports degree and became a wrestler trainer. From the mid-1970s he was head coach of the Soviet national team of wrestlers in Greco-Roman. Style. He stayed that way until the end of the Soviet Union and achieved great success with his wrestlers. His knowledge and skills were in demand all over the world. That is why he was coach in Turkey for many years and then head coach in Russia for many years . Since December 2007, although he is now almost 70 years old, he has been the head coach of the Belarusian national team of wrestlers in the Greco-Roman style.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Fe = featherweight, Le = lightweight, back then up to 63 kg or 70 kg body weight)

• 1962, 1st place , international tournament in Budapest , GR, Fe, ahead of Imre Gutman, Hungary a . Ulson, Sweden ;

• 1963, 1st place , World Championships in Helsingborg , GR, Fe, with victories over Bobby Douglas , USA , Vojtech Toth, ČSSR , Yoshizumi Iwamoto, Japan a . Paavo Laukkanen, Finland and a tie against Imre Polyák , Hungary;

• 1965, 2nd place , "Iwan-Poddubny" tournament in Moscow , GR, Le, behind Nikoforow a. before Roman Rurua , bde. USSR;

• 1965, 1st place , World Championship in Tampere , GR, Le, with victories over Jan Adamaszek, Poland , Eero Tapio , Finland, Age Barlie, Norway , Rasoul Mirmalek, Iran and others. a tie against Stevan Horvat, Yugoslavia;

• 1966, 2nd place , World Championships in Toledo , GR, Le, with victories over Fareid Mohmoud el Sheribim, Egypt , Kim Ik-Jong, North Korea , Dragomir Raitschew, Bulgaria u. Muneiji Munemura , Japan et al. a loss to Stevan Horvat;

• 1967, 1st place , EM in Minsk , GR, Le, with victories over Peter Hermann, Switzerland , Klaus Pohl , GDR , Piero Bellotti, Italy a . Franz Schmitt (wrestler) , FRG a . a tie against Eero Tapio;

• 1967, 1st place , Pre-Olympic Games in Mexico City, GR, Le, before Dragomir Raitschew, Klaus Pohl u. Eero Tapio;

• 1968, 6th place , OS in Mexico City, GR, Le, with victories over Stevan Horvat, Jan Karlsson , Sweden a. Vítězslav Mácha , ČSSR u. Loses to Klaus Pohl and Petros Galaktopoulos , Greece

swell

• Athletics magazine from 1962 to 1968,
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships of FILA , 1976, pages W-54, W-64, W-71, E-53 and others. O-84,
• Wrestling Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig

Web links

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