Yuri Melnichenko

Yuri Wassiljewitsch Melnichenko (born June 5, 1972 in Jalal-Abad , Kyrgyzstan ) is a former Kazakh wrestler . He became Olympic champion in the Greco-Roman style bantamweight in 1996 .

Career

Yuri Melnichenko started wrestling in 1979. He focused on the Greco-Roman style and was mainly trained by Yegor Mukschtadt and Däulet Turlychanow . He was a member of the PSK Daulet Alma-Ata sports club and is a sports teacher. With a height of 1.68 meters, he has wrestled bantamweight throughout his career.

In 1990 he was still starting for the Soviet Union , Junior World Champion (age group "Juniors" = up to the age of 18) and in 1991 he won the same title in Prievidza , but in the age group "Espoirs" (up to the age of 20).

In the senior class, he first started in an international championship in 1994 and won the title at the World Championships in Tampere ahead of Alexander Ignatenko , Russia and Dennis Hall from the United States . In the same year he also won the Asian Games in Hiroshima ahead of Shang Zetiang from China and Lee Tae-ho from South Korea.

In June 1995, Yuriy Melnichenko was the Grand Prix of Germany in Koblenz at the start and won there before Alexander Ignatenko. At the World Championships in Prague , he had to admit defeat to Dennis Hall in the final and finished in 2nd place ahead of Alexander Igantenko, Dimitris Jiolsian , Greece and Ruslan Chakimow , Ukraine . In November 1995 he started again in Germany and took 3rd place at the Featherweight World Cup in Schifferstadt behind Juan Luis Maren Delis , Cuba and Artur Alexanian , Germany.

The 1996 Olympic year began with a victory at the Asian Championships in Xiaoshan / China, ahead of Kenkichi Nishimi , Japan and Sheng Zetiang. At the Olympic Games in Atlanta , Yuri Melnichenko triumphed. He defeated one after another Alexander Igantenko, Marian Sandu , Romania , Ruslan Chakimow, Rıfat Yıldız from Germany and Dennis Hall, whom he defeated with 4-1 points, and thus won the gold medal . Overall, he achieved a points ratio of 30: 2 in his five victorious fights, which shows his superiority.

In 1997 Yuri Melnichenko was again Asian champion ahead of Kim In-sub from South Korea , who was one of his toughest opponents in the next few years. He also won the East Asian Games in Busan and finally won his second world title at the 1997 World Cup in Wroclaw . He defeated István Majoros from Hungary , Takahashi Nishijima, Japan, Armen Nazarjan from Bulgaria , Vilayet Agajew from Azerbaijan and Rafik Simonjan from Russia. Also in this championship he showed himself to be highly superior, which shows the points ratio in his favor of 29: 4. He gave up the 4 points in the fight against the Olympic champion and multiple world champion Armen Nazarjan in a 6-4 victory.

In the following three years, in which he was still active, he did not succeed in winning another international title. At the 1998 World Cup in Gävle , he defeated Armen Nazarjan again and then Rifat Yildiz and Artur Sargsjan, Armenia, but then lost to Kim In-sub. After another victory over Constantin Borascu from Romania, he was unable to compete in the final battle for a bronze medal , in which, according to the somewhat strange rules at the time, he would have had to wrestle again against Armen Nasarjan because of an injury. He finished 4th.

In the final of the Asian Cup in 1999 in Tashkent , Yuri Melnitschenko lost again to Kim In-sub and finished second in front of Dilschod Aripow from Uzbekistan and Kenkichi Nishimi. He also took this place at the 1999 World Cup in Athens , where he won victories over Ilija Cheban, Moldova , Melchior Tumasis, Philippines , Joel Carlsson, Sweden , Sheng Shetiang and Armen Nazarjan. In the final battle he lost again to Kim In-sub.

Yuri Melnichenko had bad luck in his last international competition. He lost again in his first fight against Kim In-sub at the Olympic Games in Sydney and was unable to compete in his second fight against Dilschod Aripow due to an injury. He ended up being beaten in 19th place.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Results
1990	1.	Junior World Championships (Juniors)	up to 58 kg	before Ari Härkänen , Finland and Sevket Karapinar, Turkey
1991	1.	Junior World Championships (Espoirs) in Prievidza	Bantam	before Constantin Dodita, Romania and Choi Sang-sun , South Korea
1994	1.	World Cup in Tampere	Bantam	before Alexander Ignatenko, Russia, Dennis Hall, USA, Mikael Lindgren , Sweden and Seref Eroglu , Turkey
1994	1.	Asian Games in Hiroshima	Bantam	before Sheng Zetiang, China and Lee Tae-ho , South Korea
1995	1.	German Grand Prix in Koblenz	Bantam	before Alexander Ignatenko and Kenkichi Nishimi, Japan
1995	2.	World Cup in Prague	Bantam	behind Dennis Hall, in front of Alexander Ignatenko, Dimitris Jiolsiang, Greece, Ruslan Chakimow, Ukraine and An Han-bong , South Korea
1995	3.	World Cup in Schifferstadt	feather	behind Juan Luis Maren Delis, Cuba and Artur Alexanian, Germany
1996	1.	Asian Championship in Xiaoshan / China	Bantam	before Kenkichi Nishimi and Sheng Zetianf
1996	gold	OS in Atlanta	Bantam	after victories over Alexander Ignatenko, Marian Sandu, Romania, Ruslan Chakimow, Rifat Yildiz, Germany and Dennis Hall
1997	1.	Asian Championship in Sari / Iran	Bantam	ahead of Kim In-sub, South Korea and Mehdi Nassiri, Iran
1997	1.	East Asian Games in Busan	Bantam	before Kim Kyung-jung, South Korea and Yasitoshi Motoki, Japan
1997	1.	World Cup in Wroclaw	Bantam	after victories over Istvan Majoros, Hungary, Takashi Nishijima, Japan, Armen Nazarjan, Bulgaria, Vilayet Agajew, Azerbaijan and Rafik Simonhan, Russia
1998	2.	FILA test tournament in Nikea / Greece	Bantam	behind Igor Petrenko , Belarus , in front of Sinan Ahmet Hanli, Germany, Plamen Tschoukassow, Bulgaria and Armen Nazarjan
1998	4th	World Cup in Gävle	Bantam	after victories over Armen Nazarjan, Rifat Yildiz and Artur Sargsjan, Armenia, a defeat against Kim In-sub, a victory over Constantin Borascu, Romania and a defeat (without a fight) against Armen Nazarjan
1999	2.	Asian Championship in Tashkent	Bantam	behind Kim In-sub, in front of Dilschod Aripow, Uzbekistan and Kenkichi Nishimi
1999	2.	World Cup in Athens	Bantam	after victories over Ilja Cheban, Moldova, Melchior Tumasis, Philippines, Joel Carlsson, Sweden, Sheng Zetiang and Armen Nasarjan and a defeat against Kim In-sub
2000	19th	OS in Sydney	Bantam	after defeats against Kim In-sub and Dilschod Aripow (without a fight)

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship
• Bantam weight, weight class up to 1996 up to 57 kg, from 1997 to 2001 up to 58 kg, feather weight, up to 1996 up to 62 kg body weight

swell

• Trade journal Der Ringer
• Foeldeak Wrestling Database website

Web links

• Yuri Melnichenko in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Thrown For a Loss - After settling for silver, wrestler Dennis Hall pointed to Sydney ( Memento from February 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )