Risto Björlin

Risto Uolevi Björlin (born December 9, 1944 in Vaasa ) is a former Finnish wrestler and bronze medalist at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich .

Career

Risto Björlin started wrestling in 1954 at the age of 10. He became a member of the Finnish Workers' Sports Association (TUL) affiliated Vasaan Toverit. There he developed into an excellent wrestler in Greco-Roman. Style. In 1962 he made a second place in flyweight at the Finnish championships behind Raimo Salimäki to attention. After this success he moved to Vaasan Voima-Veikot (VVV), a club that belonged to the general Finnish wrestling association. As part of his professional career, Risto joined the police and therefore changed his club again, he went to Kuortaneen Kunto.

For his first use at an international championship, he came in 1963 at the world championship in Helsingborg . With two wins, including one against the German champion Rolf Lacour from Köllerbach and two defeats, he came in 8th place.

Until 1976, Risto competed regularly in World and European Championships and was also involved in the Olympic Games in 1964, 1968 and 1972. He always wrestled in the Greco-Roman style, first in the flyweight, but from 1966 in the bantamweight. He was almost always placed among the ten best wrestlers in his weight class, but mostly failed because of the absolute top performers such as Armais Sajadow from the USSR , Fritz Stange from the FRG , Ion Baciu from Romania , Hans-Jürgen Veil from the FRG and János Varga from Hungary . Nevertheless, through his persistence, he managed to achieve greater success.

In 1968 he finished 3rd at the European Championships in Västerås with five wins and only one loss to János Varga. In 1969 he even became European bantamweight champion in Modena , but benefited from the boycott of this championship by the Eastern European associations, which came about because the Italian state did not allow the GDR flag to be hoisted in the venue.

At the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich Risto won the bronze medal in the bantamweight division, where he also won notable victories over David Hazewinkel from the USA a . Get to Chun-Young from North Korea .

Finally, Risto was runner-up again in Madrid in 1974 . Only the Soviet athlete Farhat Mustafin was able to defeat him in this championship. Risto's goal was to start again at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. But he did not achieve this goal, because in Finland he had grown up an extremely strong competitor in Pertti Ukkola , which blocked his way to these games. How good Ukkola was then showed in Montreal when he became Olympic champion .

Risto Björlin then ended his international wrestling career, but was then available to his club as a trainer in the youth field for many years.

successes

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Fl = flyweight, Ba = bantamweight)

• 1963, 8th place, World Cup in Helsingborg , GR, Fl, with victories over Jörgen Jensen, Denmark , and Rolf Lacour , FRG , and defeats against Gilbert Bougard, France , and Sergej Rybalko , USSR ;
• 1964, 11th place , OS in Tokyo , GR, Fl, after defeats to Ignazio Fabra , Italy , and Rolf Lacour;
• 1966, 4th place , EM in Essen , GR, Ba, with victories over Arthur Spaenhoven, Belgium , and Laurens Alflen, Netherlands , and defeats against Ion Baciu , Romania , and Armais Sajadow , USSR;
• 1966, 7th place , World Cup in Toledo / USA , GR, Ba, with victories over Charles Coffee, USA, and Bernard Knitter , Poland , and defeats against Ion Baciu, and Fritz Stange , FRG;
• 1967, 8th place , EM in Minsk , GR, Ba, with a victory over Arthur Spaenhoven and defeats against Ünver Besergil , Turkey , and Hartmut Puls , GDR ;
• 1967, 6th place , World Cup in Bucharest , GR, Ba, with victories over Öivind Solksjaer, Norway , and Rafael Sopana, Spain , and defeats against Christo Traikow , Bulgaria , and Tsutomu Hanahara , Japan ;
• 1968, 3rd place , EM in Västerås , GR, Ba, with victories over Józef Lipień , Poland , Jan Neckař, CSSR, Fritz Stange, FRG, Schora Zakarjan , USSR, and Othon Moschidis , Greece , and one defeat against János Varga , Hungary ;
• 1968, 8th place , OS in Mexico City , GR, Ba, with victories over Javier Raxon, Guatemala , and Józef Lipień and a draw against János Varga and Karlo Covic, Yugoslavia ;
• 1969, 1st place , EM in Modena , GR, Ba, with victories over Ernst Hack , Austria , Schürch, Switzerland , Karlo Covic and Giuseppe Bognanni, Italy;
• 1969, 7th place , World Championships in Mar del Plata , GR, Ba, with a victory over Karl Staric, Canada , and defeats against Christo Traikow and An Chun-Young, North Korea ;
• 1970, 9th place , EM in Berlin , GR, Ba, with a victory over Mac Scaiola, Italy, and defeats against János Varga and Christo Traikow;
• 1970, 6th place , World Championships in Edmonton , GR, Ba, with wins over Ron Astrella, New Zealand , and Kaya Özcan, Turkey, a draw against Ion Baciu and a loss against Rustem Kazakow , USSR;
• 1972, 5th place , EM in Katowice , GR, Ba, with victories over Christo Traikow, Agina Deva, Albania , Jan Neckař and defeats against Ion Baciu and Józef Lipień;
• 1972, bronze medal , OS in Munich , GR, Ba, with victories over Jörn Kronsgaard, Denmark , David Hazewinkel , USA, An Chun-Young, North Korea, and Jan Neckař and defeats against János Varga and Hans-Jürgen Veil , FRG;
• 1973, 10th place , World Cup in Teheran , GR, Ba, with a victory over Ernst Hack and defeats against Rustam Kasakow and Mehmet Uysal, Turkey;
• 1974, 2nd place , EM in Madrid , GR, Ba, with victories over Mehmet Uysal, Theodorus Lammers, Netherlands, Per Lindholm , Sweden , Ion Dulica , Romania, and János Szönyi, Hungary, a draw against Ivan Frgić , Yugoslavia, and a loss to Farhat Mustafin , USSR;
• 1975, 15th place , EM in Ludwigshafen am Rhein , GR, Ba, after defeats against Farhat Mustafin and Hans-Jürgen Veil;
• 1976, 11th place , EM in Leningrad , GR, Ba, after defeats against Lars Malmkvist , Sweden, and Hans-Jürgen Veil

Finnish championships

Risto Björlin was Finnish flyweight champion in 1963 and bantamweight in 1970 and 1976. He also won six runner-up championships and took third place once.

Championships in the association TUL:

• 1960, 3rd place , FS, up to 52 kg, behind Teuvo Näätänen and Lars Lax
• 1961, 3rd place , FS, up to 52 kg, behind Lars Lax and Kaarlo Nykänen

Championships in the general wrestling association:

• 1962, 2nd place , GR, up to 52 kg, behind Reino Salimäki and in front of Tom Rutqvist
• 1963, 1st place , GR, up to 52 kg, ahead of Arvo Ranta and Arto Kyllönen
• 1967, 2nd place , GR, up to 57 kg, behind Raimo Taskinen and in front of Matti Horttanainen
• 1968, 2nd place , GR, up to 57 kg, behind Seppo Nordlund and in front of Raimo Taskinen
• 1969, 2nd place , GR, up to 57 kg, behind Raimo Taskinen and in front of Jussi Vesterinen
• 1970, 1st place , GR, up to 57 kg, ahead of Raimo Taskinen and Pertti Ukkola
• 1971, 2nd place , GR, up to 57 kg, behind Pertti Ukkola and in front of Jorma Kujanne
• 1972, 2nd place , GR, up to 57 kg, behind Pertti Ukkola and in front of Jussi Vesterinen
• 1974, 3rd place , GR, up to 57 kg, behind Pertti Ukkola and Pertti Savolainen
• 1976, 1st place , GR, up to 57 kg, ahead of Taisto Kallijärvi and Kari Väliaho

literature

• various issues of the specialist magazine " Athletik " from 1963 to 1976,
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976

Web links

• Overview of the medal winners at the Olympic Games in Greco-Roman. Style, bantamweight on Sports123.com
• Risto Björlin in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Results of the Finnish wrestling championships
• Results of the Finnish Wrestling Championships (TUL)