Kanatbek Begaliev

Kanatbek "Kanat" Kubatbekowitsch Begalijew ( Russian Канатбек Бегалиев ; born February 14, 1984 in Talas , Kyrgyz SSR ) is a Kyrgyz wrestler . He won at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing a silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling in lightweight.

Career

Kanatbek Begalijew began wrestling in 1997 as a teenager. After his great talent was recognized, he was delegated to the wrestling center in Bishkek . There he is trained by Emil Taschanowitsch Alykulow and Mairambek Janilowitsch Achmedow. He only wrestles in the Greco-Roman style. He is currently a student but is primarily devoted to wrestling.

Kanatbek Begalijew's international career began in 1999 when he took part in the Cadets (= age group up to 16 years) in the weight class up to 46 kg in the Junior World Championships in Nyköbing and came in a good 5th place. A year later he was Asian champion in the juniors (Cadets) in flyweight in Hamadan / Iran ahead of the Kazakhs Dauren Bayakmetow and the Indian Sarup Singh.

At the Asian Junior Championships (Cadets, Juniors) in 2001 and 2002 in Tehran and Maschhad / Iran, he took 2nd place in the bantam and featherweight categories. In 2003 he started in New Delhi for the first time at an Asian Championship for seniors. In the lightweight he came in third behind Parviz Zaidvand from Iran and Gurbinder Singh from India . Things went less well for him at the 2003 Junior World Championships in Istanbul , because he lost there in the 3rd round against Seref Tüfenk from Turkey, which meant he was eliminated and only finished 11th. He was still used at the World Championships in Créteil , France , but had to learn again , because he lost after a victory over Georgios Bukis from Greece again against Parivz Zaidvand and the experienced Armen Wardanjan from Ukraine and ended up in 18th place.

He was not discouraged and qualified in 2004 with a 3rd place at the Olympic qualification tournament in Tashkent for the participation in the Olympic Games in Athens . In Athens he lost again to Parviz Zaidvand and won over Moises Sanches Parra from Spain . But after these two fights it was the end of the line for him. He finally came in 11th place.

The big breakthrough came Kanatbek Begaliew 2006. Then in the year after a third place in the lightweight in the World University Championships in Ulaanbaatar behind Cebi Selcuk from Turkey and Ali Mohammadi from Iran, he came up with victories over at the World Championships in Guangzhou Gurbinder Singh from India and Justin Harry Lester from the United States as well as the two ex-world champions Nikolai Gergow from Bulgaria and Şeref Eroğlu from Turkey in the final, in which he had to admit defeat to the Chinese Li Yanyan .

In 2007 Kanatbek Begaliew was Asian champion in the lightweight in Bishkek. In the final, he defeated the 2004 Olympic champion Jang Ji-hyun from South Korea. However, he suffered a setback at the World Cup this year in Baku , because he lost in his second fight against the Armenian Arman Adikjan and only came in 13th place.

In 2008 he failed to defend his Asian championship title from 2007 in Jeju / South Korea , because he lost on points in the final of this championship against South Korean Kim Min-chul . For this he managed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing with a 3rd place at the Olympic qualification tournament in Ostia near Rome . In Beijing he won over Jake Deitchler from the United States, the 2003 vice world champion Armen Wardanjan from Ukraine and Nikolai Gergow on points. In the final he lost quite clearly with 1: 6 techn. Points against the French Steeve Guénot , who surprised all experts and thus became Olympic champion . But winning the silver medal was a great success for Kanatbek Begaliew.

In the years 2009 and 2010 Kanatbek Begaliew was eliminated at the World Championships after the 1st round after losing to Péter Bácsi , Hungary a. Wassif Arzimanov , Turkey, and only came in 28th and 24th respectively. At the 2011 World Championships in Istanbul , he won his first three fights, also beating the 2008 Olympic champion Steeve Guénot , but then he lost to Justin Harry Lester from the United States , was eliminated and only came in 8th place. This place was not enough to make up for the 2012 Olympics in London to qualify. He then tried to win this qualification in three tournaments in 2012. In Astana he took 3rd place, in Taiyuan / China 7th place and in Helsinki again 3rd place. None of these placements were enough for qualification, although he only missed the qualification criteria in Astana and Helsinki by one place.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Result
1999	5.	Junior World Championships (Cadets) in Nyköbing	up to 46 kg body weight	behind Dauren Bayakmetow, Kazakhstan , Lajos Adam, Hungary , Farhad Alizadeh, Iran u. Seref Ayrata, Turkey , ahead of Heinz Marnette , Germany
2000	1.	Asian Junior Championship (Cadets) in Hamadan / Iran	To fly	before Dauren Bayakmetow, Sarup Singh, India a . Farhad Alizadeh
2001	2.	Asian Junior Championship (Cadets) in Tehran	Bantam	behind Habibollah Akhlaghi, Iran, in front of Ali Mohammadi , Iran u. Ajay Kumar, India
2002	2.	Asian Junior Championship (Juniors) in Mashhad / Iran	feather	behind Moshen Sedighi, Iran, in front of Mohammed Bashar, Iraq and Park Dae-gyun, South Korea
2003	3.	Asian Championship in New Delhi	Light	behind Parviz Zaidvand , Iran u. Gurbinder Singh, India, before Bachodyr Kurbanow, Uzbekistan a . Kkhitar Manukjan, Kazakhstan
2003	11.	Junior World Championships (Juniors) in Istanbul	Light	with victories over Cedric Lafon, France a . Jesper Antonie Coetzer, Namibia a . a loss to Seref Tüfenk , Turkey
2003	18th	World Cup in Créteil / France	Light	with a victory over Georgios Bukis, Greece a . Loses to Parvisz Zaidvand and Armen Vardanyan , Ukraine
2004	7th	Olympic qualification tournament in Novi Sad	Light	Winner: Nikolai Gergow , Bulgaria ahead of Parviz Zaidvand
2004	3.	Olympic qualification tournament in Ostia	Light	behind Juan Luis Marén , Cuba and Moises Sanchez Parra , Spain
2004	11.	OS in Athens	Light	after a loss to Parviz Zaidvand and a win over Moises Sanchez Parra
2006	3.	Student World Cup in Ulaanbaatar	Light	behind Cebi Selcuk , Turkey and Ali Mohammadi, Iran, together with Ashkat Dilmuchamedow, Kazakhstan
2006	2.	World Cup in Guangzhou	Light	with wins over Gurbinder Singh, Justin Harry Lester , USA , Nikolai Gergow and Şeref Eroğlu , Turkey and one defeat against Li Yanyan , China
2006	7th	Asian Games in Doha	Light	with a victory over Mohammed Al Faoure, Syria a . Losses against Kim Min-chul, South Korea a. Qiao Huameng, China
2007	2.	Stanislaus Pytlasinksi tournament in Warsaw	Welter	behind Dmytro Pyschkow, Ukraine, in front of Christophe Guénot , France a . Igor Abdulov, Azerbaijan
2007	1.	Asian Championship in Bishkek	Light	before Yang Ju-hyun, South Korea, Ali Mohammadi u. Qiao Huanmeng
2007	13.	World Cup in Baku	Light	with a victory over Hamza Louati, Tunisia a . a loss to Arman Adikjan, Armenia
2008	2.	Asian Championship in Jeju / South Korea	Light	behind Kim Min-chul, South Korea, in front of Masako Imuro, Japan u. Kim Kum Chol, North Korea
2008	3.	Olympic qualification tournament in Ostia	Light	behind Sergei Kowalenko , Russia a . Ali Mohammadi, before Michail Semenow, Belarus a. Tiziano Corriga, Italy
2008	silver	OS in Beijing	Light	with victories over Jake Deitchler , USA, Armen Wardanjan a. Nikolai Gergow u. a loss to Steeve Guénot , France
2009	28.	World Cup in Herning / Denmark	Welter	after a loss to Péter Bácsi , Hungary
2010	24.	World Cup in Moscow	Light	after losing to Wassif Arzimanov , Turkey
2011	7th	Yadegar Imam Cup in Qom	Welter	Winner: Mohsen Ghasemi , Iran ahead of Emrah Kus, Turkey, Hadi Alizadeh Pournia and Masoud Rashidian, all Iran
2011	5.	Asian championship in Tashkent	Welter	behind Mohsen Ghasemi, Kim Jin-hyeok, South Korea, Ashkat Dilmuchamedow, Kazakhstan and Asisbek Murodow, Uzbekistan
2011	3.	"Wladiyslaw-Pytlasinski" Memorial in Radom	Light	behind Ambako Watschadze , Russia and Achiko Turmanidze, Georgia
2011	8th.	World Cup in Istanbul	Light	after victories over Sandeep Yadav, India , Sharur Wardanjan, Sweden and Steeve Guénot , France and a defeat against Justin Harry Lester , USA
2012	3.	Olympic qualification tournament in Astana	Light	behind Darchan Bajachmedow, Kazakhstan and Tsutomu Fujimara, Japan, together with Xie Zen, China
2012	7th	Olympic qualification tournament in Taiyuan / China	Light	Winner: Tamas Lörincz , Hungary, ahead of Pascal Strebel, Switzerland
2012	3.	Olympic qualification tournament in Helsinki	Light	behind Yüksel Atakan , Turkey and Howhannes Wardereschjan, Armenia, together with Alan Dschakajew, Ukraine

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship
• Fly weight up to 54 kg, bantam weight up to 58 kg, feather weight up to 63 kg (in the years up to 2001), lightweight, up to 66 kg and welter weight up to 74 kg body weight (since 2002)

Web links

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