Kirkor Leonov

Kirkor Leonow (born April 1, 1944 in Gruncharovo , Silistra District , Bulgaria ) is a former Bulgarian wrestler . He was European champion in freestyle wrestling in 1973 in the bantamweight division.

Career

Kirkor Leonow developed into one of the best Bulgarian bantamweight freestyle wrestlers in the 1960s. He started for Spartak Varna and was trained by Murtaza Murtazow. However, he had three very strong competitors in Bulgaria in Jancho Patrikow , Miho Dukow and Ivan Schawow , who were mostly just ahead of him in terms of performance. Kirkor Leonow was therefore only used at the World and European Championships in 1973.

Before that, however, he had achieved very good results in other important international competitions. For example, in 1967 he won the so-called Pre-Olympic Games in Mexico City in the bantamweight division ahead of the strong Pole Zbigniew Żedzicki . In 1972 he won the bantamweight tournament in Leipzig at the “Werner Seelenbinder” tournament, ahead of Horst Mayer from the GDR and Grigoire Condrat from Romania .

At the European Championships in 1973 in Lausanne , Kirkor Leonow celebrated the greatest success of his career, because he became European champion in free style with victories over Roin Dobordschenidze from the Soviet Union , Petre Ciarnau from Romania , Giorgios Hatzioannidis from Greece , Risto Autovermietung from Yugoslavia and László Klinga from Hungary in bantamweight. He started in 1973 at the World Championships in Tehran and won there over Jeon Hae-sup from South Korea , Zbigniew Zedzicki and Megdiin Choilogdordsch from Mongolia , but retired from the USSR after a defeat against Vladimir Jumin and finished in 6th place .

In 1974 Kirkor Leonow competed in the FRG Grand Prix in Freiburg , where he won the bantamweight division ahead of Mohamed Mansouri from Iran and Otto Vozar from the ČSSR . After that, no further results are known from him.

International success

(WM = world championship, EM = European championship, F = free style, Ba = bantam weight, back then up to 57 kg body weight)

• 1967, 1st place , Pre-Olympic Games in Mexico City , F, Ba, ahead of Zbigniew Żedzicki , Poland and V. Martinez, Mexico ;
• 1968, 2nd place , "Dan Kolew" tournament in Sevljewo, F, Ba, behind Jancho Patrikow , Bulgaria and ahead of Badsaryn Süchbaatar , Mongolia ;
• 1972, 1st place , "Werner Seelenbinder" tournament in Leipzig , F, Ba, ahead of Horst Mayer , GDR , Grigoire Condrat, Romania and Reinhard Mehlhorn , GDR;
• 1973, 1st place , European Championship in Lausanne , F, Ba, with victories over Roin Dobordschedidze, USSR , Petre Ciarnau , Romania, Risto Kreditv , Yugoslavia and Georgios Hatzioannidis , Greece and despite a defeat against László Klinga , Hungary ;
• 1973, 6th place , World Championships in Tehran , F, Ba, with victories over Jeon Hae-sup, South Korea , Zbigniew Zedzicki and Megdiin Choilogdordsch , Mongolia and a defeat against Vladimir Jumin , USSR;
• 1974, 1st place , Grand Prix of the FRG in Freiburg , F, Ba, ahead of Mohamed Mansouri, Iran and Otto Vozar, ČSSR

swell

• Athletics magazine , numbers: 12/1967, 3/1968, 6/1972, 6/1974
• Documentation of FILA International Wrestling Championships , 1976, pages E-89 and W-107

Web links

Profile of Kirkor Leonow at the Institute for Applied Training Science