Refik Memišević

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Refik Memišević (born May 14, 1956 in Bačko Novo Selo , † January 4, 2004 Subotica ) was a Yugoslav wrestler . He became world champion in 1981 and won a silver medal at the Olympic Games in 1984.

Career

Refik Memišević began wrestling in 1972 at the age of 16 in Novi Sad in Vojvodina , one of the centers of Yugoslav wrestling in those years. Before that he had already done athletics and played basketball . In 1975 he found his way to the local top club "Spartaka" and received an excellent coach in the experienced Milan Damjanović. In 1973 he was Yugoslav junior heavyweight champion and 1974 Balkan junior champion, also in heavyweight, in free style. From 1976 he changed the style and from that point on only wrestled in the Greco-Roman style, which suited him more. In 1977 he competed in a world championship in Gothenburg for the first time and won the world championship silver medal as a 21-year-old newcomer. In this excellent debut in the international senior competition, he was only defeated by the Soviet Olympic champion and multiple world champion Nikolai Balboschin on points. However, Balboschin was always a stumbling block for Memišević at the next international championships. He wrestled a total of five times against this and lost five times. Of course, it must be mentioned that Balboschin was a real exceptional athlete who could hardly be defeated.

Refik Memišević wrestled in the heavyweight division until 1980, which then went up to 100 kg. Since he had more and more difficulties to bring this weight, he switched to the super heavyweight (over 100 kg body weight) in 1981 and surprisingly became world champion in the same year. In this weight class he stayed until the end of his wrestling career in 1986. In the super heavyweight division, he mainly had to deal with Nikola Dinew and Alexandar Tomow from Bulgaria and Tomas Johansson from Sweden . He also owes the Swede Johansson for winning the 1984 Olympic silver medal in Los Angeles . Johansson had actually won the silver medal, but had to be subsequently disqualified for doping. Memišević, who had won the bronze medal against the Romania Victor Dolipschi , then received the silver medal and Dolipschi the bronze medal. But he did not have the opportunity to fight for the gold medal against the Olympic champion Jeffrey Blatnick from the USA .

Memišević was no stranger to the Federal Republic of Germany either, because he wrestled several times with good success at the Grand Prix of the Federal Republic of Germany in Aschaffenburg .

He retired from competitive sports in 1986 and then lived as a businessman in Novi Sad. He died in 2004 at the age of 48.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, S = heavyweight, SS = super heavyweight, at that time up to 100 kg or over 100 kg body weight)

  • 1977, 2nd place , World Championship in Gothenburg , GR, S, with victories over Yukio Yoshida, Japan , Svend-Erik Studsgaard, Denmark , Georgi Rajkow , Bulgaria and Jeff Simmons, USA and one defeat against Nikolai Balboschin , Soviet Union ;
  • 1978, 5th place , EM in Oslo , Gr, S, with a victory over Polat, Turkey and defeats against Farkas, Hungary (both wrestlers were disqualified for being passive) and Nikolai Balboschin;
  • 1978, 3rd place , World Cup in Mexico City , GR, S, with victories over Yasukasu Fujimori, Japan and Roman Bierła , Poland and defeats against Brad Rheingans , USA and Georgi Rajkow (in both fights the wrestlers were disqualified for being passive) and Nikolai Balboschin;
  • 1979, 1st place , Mediterranean Games in Split , GR, S, ahead of Remo Riccardelli, Italy and Georgios Pikilidis, Greece ;
  • 1979, 5th place , EM in Bucharest , GR, S, with a victory over Remo Piccardelli, Italy and defeats against Andrei Dimitrov, Bulgaria (both wrestlers disqualified) and Nikolai Balboschin;
  • 1979, 6th place , World Championships in San Diego / USA, GR, S, with a victory over Pikilidis, and defeats against Roman Bierła and Nikolai Balboschin;
  • 1980, 9th place , EM in Prievidza , GR, S, after defeats against Vasile Andrei , Romania and Studsgaard;
  • 1980, 4th place , OS in Moscow , GR, S, with victories over Studsgaard and Pikilidis and defeats against Vasile Andrei and Roman Bierła;
  • 1981. 2nd place , Universiade in Bucharest , Gr, SS, behind Victor Dolipschi , Romania and in front of Ivan Karapetyan, USSR;
  • 1981, 1st place , World Championships in Oslo , GRT, SS, with victories over Henryk Tomanek, Poland, Antonio Lapenna, Italy, Karl Hug , FRG , János Rovnyai , Hungary and Nikola Dinew , Bulgaria;
  • 1982, 2nd place , World Championships in Katowice , GR, SS, behind Nikola Dinev, and in front of Candido Mesa, Cuba , Awtandil Maissuradse, USSR, William Lee, USA and János Rovnyai;
  • 1983, 1st place , Mediterranean Games in Casablanca , GR, Ss, ahead of Hassan El Hadad, Egypt and Antonio Lapenna, Italy;
  • 1983, 5th place , World Championships in Kiev , GR, SS, behind Yevgeny Artjuchin, USSR, Dinew, Mesa, József Nagy , Hungary and in front of Tomanek;
  • 1984, 4th place , EM in Jönköping , GR, SS, behind Alexandar Tomow , Bulgaria Tomanek and Igor Rostorozki , USSR and in front of Victor Dolipschi , Romania and Tomas Johansson , Sweden ;
  • 1984, silver medal , OS in Los Angeles , GR, SS, with victories over Tie-Masaya Ando , Japan, Pikilidis and Victor Dolipschi;
  • 1985, 4th place , World Championships in Kolbotn / Norway , GR, SS, behind Igor Rostorozki, Ioan Grigoraș , Romania and Ranguel Guerovski, Bulgaria and in front of László Tóth , Hungary and Dennis Koslowski , USA

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