Ignazio Fabra

Ignazio Fabra medal table
Ignazio Fabra
Wrestler
Italy
Olympic games
silver	1952 Helsinki	To fly
silver	1956 Melbourne	To fly
World Championship
gold	1955 Karlsruhe	To fly
silver	1962 Toledo	To fly
silver	1963 Helsingborg	To fly

Ignazio Fabra (born April 25, 1930 in Palermo , † April 13, 2008 in Genoa ) was an Italian wrestler . He was a two-time Olympic silver medalist and 1955 flyweight world champion , Greco-Roman style.

Career

Ignazio Fabra started wrestling as a teenager. Since Ignazio Fabra was deaf and dumb, it is all the more admirable the tenacity and energy with which the bundle of temperaments fought its way into the Italian top class and later also into the world class of wrestlers in Greco-Roman style. Fabra fought during his entire career in the lightest weight class, the flyweight (up to 52 kg body weight). In 1950 he was the first Italian flyweight champion. His first start in international championships he completed at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 in flyweight in Greco-Roman style. He scored seven wins there and was only defeated by the Soviet wrestler Boris Gurevich in the final . The silver medal was the reward for his good work.

At the World Championships next year in Naples Fabra first scored a victory over the 1948 Olympic champion Lennart Viitala from Finland , but was then defeated by the strong Turk Ahmet Bilek and again against Boris Gurevich and had to retire after the third round.

At the 1955 World Championships in Karlsruhe , Fabra then achieved the great triumph. With six certain wins he became world champion in a superior style. Among the wrestlers he defeated were u. a. the German master Heinrich Weber , Hüseyin Akbaş from Turkey and Nail Garajew from the Soviet Union .

Of course, Fabra wanted to win the gold medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne . It also seemed as if this project should succeed, because he won his first four fights, but then met a new Soviet wrestler, Nikolai Solovyov , who defeated him on points. So again only the silver medal remained for Fabra.

After Fabra was unable to take part in the 1958 World Cup in Budapest due to injury, he made his third attempt to win the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 . He did not succeed in winning the tournament again. This time he failed to Dumitru Pârvulescu from Romania , whom he had defeated several times before. In the end he got 5th place.

1962 in Toledo / USA and 1963 in Helsingborg Fabra, who was tireless, was twice runner-up in the flyweight world championship. In 1964 Ignazio Fabra fought twice in three international matches against the Soviet Union against the Olympic champion of 1960 Oleg Karawajew and defeated him once on points. In 1964 he made his fourth and final attempt at the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo and this time it was Rolf Lacour from Köllerbach who screwed up this project by defeating him after Fabra had already defeated the Soviet favorite Armais Sajadow . Fabra had to be satisfied with the ungrateful 4th place.

After the 1965 World Championships in Tampere , where he had finished 7th, Fabra ended his long and successful career as a wrestler.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Results
1952	silver	OS in Helsinki	To fly	with victories over Edmond Faure , France, Mahmoud Fawzi, Egypt, Bengt Johansson , Sweden, Dumitru Pârvulescu , Romania and Leo Honkala, Finland and one defeat against Boris Gurewitsch , Soviet Union
1953	7th	World Cup in Naples	To fly	with a victory over Lennart Viitala , Finland and defeats against Ahmet Bilek , Turkey and Boris Gurewitsch
1955	1.	World Cup in Karlsruhe	To fly	with victories over Heinrich Weber (Ringer, 1923) , Federal Republic of Germany, Hans Eriksen, Norway, Lubomir Brussew, Bulgaria, Hüseyin Akbaş , Turkey, Reijo Nykänen , Finland and Nail Garajew , USSR
1956	6th	World Cup in Istanbul	Bantam	after victories over Michel Nakovzi, Lebanon and Imre Hódos , Hungary and a defeat against Boris Gurewitsch
1956	silver	OS in Melbourne	To fly	with wins over John Richard Wilson , USA, Dursun Ali Egribas , Turkey, Istvan Baranya , Hungary and Dumitru Pârvulescu and one defeat against Nikolai Solowjow , USSR
1958	1.	Intern. Tournament in Udine	To fly	before Borivoje Vukov , Yugoslavia and Erwin Trouvain , Federal Republic of Germany
1959	1.	Intern. Tournament in Savona	To fly	before Erwin Trouvan, Karakalais, Turkey and Tatas, France
1960	5.	OS in Rome	To fly	with wins over Maurice Mewis , Belgium, Fritz Stange , Federal Republic of Germany, Takashi Hirata , Japan, a draw against Bengt Frännfors , Sweden and a defeat against Dumitru Pârvulescu
1962	2.	World Cup in Toledo / USA	To fly	with victories over Ahmet Nahle, Lebanon, Kōji Sakurama , Japan, John Richard Wilson and Burhan Bozkurt , Turkey and one defeat against Sergei Rybalko , USSR
1963	2.	World Cup in Helsingborg	To fly	with victories over Rudolf Krenger, Switzerland and Ahmet Bilek, a draw against Sergei Rybalko and defeats against Angel Keresow, Bulgaria and Borivoje Vukov
1964	4th	OS in Tokyo	To fly	with victories over Risto Björlin , Finland, Fouad Ali, Egypt and Armais Sajadow , USSR and one defeat against Rolf Lacour , Federal Republic of Germany
1965	7th	World Cup in Tampere	To fly	with victories against Reino Salimäki, Finland and A. Abdallah, France and defeats against Rolf Lacour and Gheorghe Stoiciu , Romania

Italian championships

Ignazio Fabra was ten times Italian flyweight champion, Greco-Roman style

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship
• European championships (EM) were not held from 1950 to 1965
• World championships were held from 1950 to 1959 in a rotating change of styles, and since 1961 annually in both styles
• Fly weight, back then up to 52 kg, bantam weight up to 57 kg body weight

literature

• Athletics magazine from 1950 to 1965,
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships , 1976

Web links

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