Roman Rurua

Roman Rurua

Roman Rurua ( Georgian რომან რურუა ; born November 25, 1942 in Muchurtscha near Martwili , Mingrelia ) is a former Soviet wrestler from Georgia . He was Olympic champion in 1968, in 1966, 1967 and 1969 he was world champion in featherweight, in 1970 in lightweight.

Life

He grew up in the Georgian district of Martvili. At school, he began wrestling, the national sport of Georgia at the time, as a teenager. He won prizes at the Children's and Youth Partakiads. At the age of 18 he was delegated to the Kolmeurne Tbilisi association .

In 1961 he appeared on the international wrestling stage when he shouldered the Czech Jiří Švec in an international match between Georgia and Czechoslovakia . Since 1962 he was in the Soviet championships in Greco-Roman style in the featherweight and later in the lightweight class leading places. In 1964 he became the first Soviet champion and prevailed against the world champions from previous years Konstantin Wyrupajew and Gennady Sapunov . The reward was the start at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo . There he fought his way through with five wins up to the final against the Hungarian Imre Polyák , against whom he wrestled in a draw. Since he was burdened with a missing point more than Polyák from the preliminary fights, he had to be content with the silver medal.

Four years later, at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City , he then caught up with the Olympic featherweight victory, Greco-Roman style, with six wins and one draw. He also fought very successfully at world championships. In 1966, 1967 and 1969 he won the featherweight title and 1970 lightweight. When he finished only sixth at the World Championships in 1971, he resigned from international competitive sport.

After the end of his wrestling career, Roman Rurua studied at the Georgian Polytechnic Institute in Tbilisi and graduated as a technology engineer. After the political change in the Soviet Union , which brought Georgia to independence, he worked as a politician in the industrial party IWSG and is a member of parliament. He is also President of the National Olympic Committee of Georgia. In September 2010 he was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame for his services to wrestling .

Placements

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Fe = featherweight, Le = lightweight, then up to 62 kg or 68 kg body weight)

• 1964, silver medal , OS in Tokyo , GR, Fe, with victories over Müzahir Sille , Turkey , Kazimierz Lipień , Poland , Svend Skrydsrup, Denmark , Joseph Mewis, Belgium , Koji Sakamura, Japan and a draw against Branislav Martinović , Yugoslavia and Imre Polyák , Hungary ;
• 1966, 1st place , World Cup in Toledo / USA , GR, Fe, with victories over Petrus Fourie, South Africa , Ronald Finley , USA, Leif Freij, Sweden, Mohamed Marsouk, Egypt , Hidao Fujimoto, Japan and Ibrahim Korsidfar, Iran ;
• 1967, 1st place , World Championship in Bucharest , GR, Fe, with victories over Martti Laakso , Finland , Imre Baracsi, Hungary, Clemens Hutter, Switzerland , Fujimoto, Czeslaw Korzén, Poland and a draw against Simion Popescu , Romania ;
• 1968, gold medal , OS in Mexico City , GR, Fe, with wins over James Hazewinkel , USA, Ismael Karaghouli, Iran, Sreten Damjanović , Yugoslavia, Lothar Schneider , GDR , Dimitar Galintschew, Bulgaria, Metin Alakoc, Turkey and a draw against Hideo Fujimoto;
• 1969, 1st place , World Championship in Mar del Plata , GR, Fe, with victories over Werner Hettich , FRG, Petre Coman, Romania, James Hazewinkel and Noriaki Kiguchi, Japan and a draw against Martti Laakso;
• 1970, 1st place , World Championships in Edmonton , GR, Le, with victories over Hashem Ghanbari, Iran, Diego Rossi, Italy , Senyit Hisirli, Turkey, Matti Poikala , Finland and Tanuoe Takahashi, Japan and a draw against Simion Popescu;
• 1971, 6th place , World Championship in Sofia , GR, Le, with victories over Ahmed Soudani, Tunisia , Ladislav Nepustil, ČSSR and Raimo Mylläri, Sweden and defeats against Antal Steer, Hungary and Sreten Damjanović

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zuaro first official from the US to be inducted into the FILA Hall of Fame  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on September 11, 2010  

Web links

• Profile of Roman Rurua at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Roman Rurua in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Brief portrait of MP Roman Rurua