Ognyan Nikolov

Ognjan Nikolow (born June 13, 1949 ) is a former Bulgarian wrestler and silver medalist at the 1972 Munich Olympics in free style paper weight.

Career

Ognjan Nikolow began wrestling as a teenager at the Levski-Spartak sports club in Sofia . He developed into an excellent freestyle wrestler and was therefore delegated to the central sports club of the CSKA Sofia Army. There he was led by the trainer Radoslaw Radoslawow in the Bulgarian and world elite. In 1969 the international wrestling federation introduced a new weight class, the paper weight, which went up to a body weight of 48 kg. Nikolov was very light and reached this weight class, although he too, like almost all of his competitors, had to work off a few kilos before each competition.

In March 1969 he was sent to the World Championships in Mar del Plata without having previously gained international experience . He had to pay tribute to his inexperience there, lost both fights he had to contest and ended up in sixth place out of seven participants. In the summer he had the opportunity to gain experience at several international tournaments, including first place at the Second Summer Spartakiad of the Socialist Armies in Kiev , so that he was able to perform quite differently at the European Championships in 1969 in his native Sofia . Nikolov won five fights there and became vice European champion after a loss to the Soviet world champion Roman Dmitriew .

In 1970 Nikolow stayed with the Bulgarian national wrestling team on a competition trip in the Federal Republic of Germany . In three encounters he defeated Willi Heckmann from Schifferstadt once prematurely and once on points and also celebrated a shoulder victory over Rainer Brockhoff from Witten .

In the next few years Nikolow always placed himself in the front of the field at the international championships and won a bronze medal in paper weight at the 1971 World Championship in Sofia and the 1972 European Championship in Katowice .

He then celebrated the greatest success of his career at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich . After four wins, he was defeated again in the final against Roman Dmitriev and won the silver medal .

After the 1972 Olympic Games, Nikolow switched to flyweight, where he was allowed to weigh four kilograms more. In this weight class he achieved another great success in 1974 when he became European champion in Madrid . He succeeded in doing this with four wins, u. a. about the strong opponents Jürgen Möbius from the GDR , Ali Riza Alan from Turkey and Władysław Stecyk from Poland and a draw against the Soviet athlete Telman Paschajew .

In 1976 Nikolov reached the 4th place at the European Championships in Leningrad and was then not used by the Bulgarian Wrestling Federation at the Olympic Games in Montreal , where Nermedin Selimov was preferred. Ognjan Nikolow then ended his international wrestling career.

successes

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, F = free style, Pa = paper weight, Fl = fly weight, at that time up to 48 kg or 52 kg body weight)

• 1969, 6th place , World Championships in Mar del Plata , F, Pa, after defeats against Badsarragschaagiin Dschamsran , Mongolia , and Akihiko Umedo, Japan ;

• 1969, 3rd place , tournament in Bucharest , F, Pa, behind Petros Trantafilidis, Greece , and Jürgen Möbius , GDR ;

• 1969, 1st place , II. Summer Spartakiad of the socialist armies in Kiev , F, Pa;

• 1969, 2nd place , EM in Sofia , F, Pa, with victories over H. Bucher, Switzerland , Günther Maas , FRG , Sefer Baygin , Turkey , Jürgen Möbius and Iancu Vanghelici, Romania , and one defeat against Roman Dmitriew , USSR ;

• 1970, 5th place , EM in Berlin , F, Pa, with a victory over Petros Trantafilidis and defeats against Sefer Baygin and Iancu Vanghelici;

• 1970, 6th place , World Championships in Edmonton , F, Pa, with a win over Ken Shand, Canada , and losses to Ibrahim Javadi , Iran , and Sefer Baygin;

• 1971, 1st place , tournament in Jambol , F, Pa, ahead of Jürgen Möbius and Ion Arapu, Romania;

• 1971, 3rd place , World Cup in Sofia , F, Pa, with victories over Akihiko Umeda, Pank Chang Ryong, North Korea and Mansoor, Iraq , a draw against Badsarragschaagiin Jamsran and a defeat against Roman Dmitriev;

• 1972, 3rd place , EM in Katowice , F, Pa, with victories over Ion Arapu, Marcel Miček, Czechoslovakia , and Jürgen Möbius, a draw against Refik Gadschiew, USSR, and a defeat against Sefer Baygin;

• 1972, silver medal , OS in Munich , F, Pa, with victories over Jad Zobari, Israel , Attila Latak, Hungary , and Ebrahim Javadpour, Iran, a draw against Sefer Baygin and a defeat against Roman Dmitriev;

• 1973, 1st place , tournament in Berlin , F, Fl, ahead of S. Kudelski, Poland, and Scheljepkin, USSR;

• 1973, 4th place , World Cup in Tehran , F, Fl, with victories over Arsen Alachwerdiew , USSR, Dordschgotowyn Ganbat , Mongolia, and Mario Sabattini , FRG, and defeats to Ibrahim Javadi and Yūji Takada , Japan;

• 1974, 1st place , EM in Madrid , F, Fl, with victories over Jürgen Möbius, Ali Riza Alan , Turkey, Ion Arapu and Władysław Stecyk , Poland , and a draw against Telman Paschajew , USSR;

• 1974, unplaced, World Cup in Istanbul , F, Fl, retired due to injury in the first fight against Wieslaw Kończak, Poland;

• 1975, 5th place , EM in Ludwigshafen am Rhein , F, Fl, with victories over Ali Riza Alan and Henryk Gál , Hungary, and defeats against Arsen Alachwerdiew and Wladyslaw Stecyk;

• 1976, 4th place , EM in Leningrad , F, Fl, with victories over Kamil Özdag, Turkey, and Wieslaw Kończak and defeats against Hartmut Reich , GDR, and Arsen Alachwerdiew

swell

• 1) Div. Issues of the specialist magazines "Athletik" from 1969 to 1975 and "Der Ringer" from 1976,
• 2) Documentation of International wrestling Championships of the FILA, 1976

Web links

Overview of paper weight free style Olympic medal winners