Nikolai Below (wrestler)
Nikolai Below medal table |
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---|---|---|
Soviet Union | ||
Olympic games | ||
bronze | 1952 Helsinki | medium |
European Championship | ||
gold | 1947 Prague | medium |
Nikolai Grigoryevich Below (born November 23, 1919 in Fyodorovskoye, † October 14, 1987 ) was a Soviet wrestler . He was European champion in 1947 and won a bronze medal in the Greco-Roman style in the middleweight division at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki .
Career
Nikolai Below belonged to the Dynamo Moscow sports club . How and when he started wrestling is not known. He achieved his first successes as a wrestler in 1945 when he finished 3rd in the Soviet championship in the Greco-Roman style in middleweight division. Nikolai Below wrestled mainly in the Greco-Roman style, but also in the free style in the early years of his career.
From 1948 to 1951, he was four times in a row Soviet master in the Greco-Roman style and won a total of five other medals (three silver and two bronze medals) at these championships. His main opponents at these championships were Dawit Tschimakuridze , Grigori Tkachenko and Giwi Kartosia
He was only able to take part in international championships twice. That was because the Soviet Union did not belong to the world wrestling association FILA until 1952. In 1947, a Soviet wrestling team appeared at the European Championship in Greco-Roman style in Prague. The FILA let the wrestlers of this team start with a special permit at this European championship. Nikolai Below took advantage of this opportunity and became European middleweight champion in Prague with victories over Josef Bilý, Czechoslovakia, Gyula Németi , Hungary, Mohammed Moussa, Egypt, Axel Grönberg , Sweden and Muhlis Tayfur , Turkey.
After the Soviet Union joined the FILA, it was able to send a team to the Olympic Games in Helsinki. Nikolai Below was a member of this team. In Helsinki he won the Greco-Roman style middleweight division against Jerzy Gryt from Poland and Emile Courtois, Belgium, had a bye in the 3rd round and lost his last fights against Axel Grönberg and Kalervo Rauhala from Finland. He won a bronze medal with it.
He was not at the start at other international championships. In 1953 he was replaced as a top athlete in his weight class in the Soviet Union by Giwi Kartosia.
1955 defeated Nikolai Below in Moscow in an international match between the USSR and Sweden in the middleweight division Rune Jansson on points.
After the end of his active career, Nikolai Below worked as a wrestler trainer in Moscow.
International success
year | space | competition | style | Weight class | Results |
1947 | 1. | EM in Prague | GR | medium | after victories over Josef Bilý, Czechoslovakia, Gyula Németi, Hungary, Mohammed Moussa, Egypt, Axel Grönberg , Sweden and Muhlis Tayfur, Turkey |
1952 | bronze | OS in Helsinki | GR | medium | after victories over Jerzy Gryt, Poland and Emile Courtois, Belgium and defeats against Axel Grönberg and Kalervo Rauhala, Finland |
Successes in Soviet championships
year | space | style | Weight class | Results |
1945 | 3. | GR | medium | behind Anton Aboljitsch and Wladimir Krutschkowski |
1946 | 2. | GR | medium | behind Grigory Tkachenko, in front of Vladimir Kruchkovsky |
1947 | 3. | F. | medium | behind Dawit Tschimakuridze and L. Chantimurgan |
1948 | 1. | GR | medium | before Dawit Tschimakuridze and Grigory Tkachenko |
1948 | 2. | F. | Semi-difficult | behind Vladimir Matschkapjan, in front of L. Markov |
1949 | 1. | GR | medium | before Vladimir Krutschkowski and Grigory Tkachenko |
1950 | 1. | GR | medium | before Grigory Tkachenko and Giwi Kartosija |
1951 | 1. | GR | medium | before Grigory Tkachenko and Giwi Kartosija |
1953 | 2. | GR | medium | behind Giwi Kartosija and in front of Leonid Anfinogow |
- Explanations
- GR = Greco-Roman style, F = freestyle
- OS = Olympic Games, EM = European Championship
- Middle weight, back then up to 79 kg, light heavy weight, up to 87 kg body weight
literature
- Athletics magazine
- Documentation of FILA International Wrestling Championships 1896 to 1976, publisher: FILA, 1976
Web links
- Nikolai Below in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Below, Nikolai |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Below, Nikolai Grigoryevich (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | soviet wrestler |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 23, 1919 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Feodorovskoye |
DATE OF DEATH | October 14, 1987 |